A Darkened Ray of Sunshine
by Tasogare-Taichou
Summary: Hinata, wrestling with both her feelings for Neji and the harsh treatment she continues to receive from her family, finally decides that she can no longer bear her life as it is. Leaving Konoha, she finds herself flung into a world that is far different f
1. Chapter 1

**A Darkened Ray of Sunshine**

**Summary**: Hinata, wrestling with both her feelings for Neji and the harsh treatment she continues to receive from her family, finally decides that she can no longer bear her life as it is. Leaving Konoha, she finds herself flung into a world that is far different from the sheltered life that she once knew. And when an offer of dreams fulfilled comes from a most unexpected source, she grabs onto the chance offered to her. But what will happen when the very thing that she's been running from comes in search of her? Will she return to Konoha, and the life that she left behind, or will she stride forward on her own onto a new path?

**Rating**: R/M for language and situations as well as violence.

**Pairings**: NejiHina, ChouHina, other random Oto-pairings (hey, Orochimaru can sleep with whoever he wants and who's going to tell him he can't?)

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto, but I'd sell my soul to Kishimoto-sensei if it would get him to make NejiHina canon.

The leaves rustled in the wind, their impacting forms creating a melody of sound that furled through the air, soaring higher and louder on the updrafts as the air currents carried with them the chips and shards of music. The gusts swirled the leaves that rested on the hard dirt of the road, sending them winging up into the symphony that nature created from the mixture. A storm was coming. As the wispy clouds began to thicken with the impending fury of the elements, the complexion of the heavens changed, shifting from an airy and lighthearted blue to a dark and foreboding shade of deep gray. A low rumble echoed across the tops of the trees as they bent with the increasing wind, and as a bolt of lightning split the sky, the first few drops of cold rain pelted down out of the sky, impacting with the dusty ground and causing small circular puffs of dust to waft up around them. The village seemed to shut down as the storm blew in, window shades rolling down; street stalls closing their doors, signs and banners being lowered. As the bustling streets emptied, their occupants seeking the relative safety and comfort of the dryer indoors, there was at least one person who greeted the coming storm with something akin to and yet less then exultation.

She loved the rain. Ever since she could remember, she had been drawn towards the cool, flowing torrents of liquid that fell unbidden from the sky. It wasn't just the rain that she loved. The girl who now sat in the open doorway and watched the sky loved all sorts of water. Paper-white eyes that shone like polished opal watched the drops of water strike the ground, their numbers increasing as more and more joined their already-fallen comrades to form small rivulets and trails that ran across the ground to combine into thick veins of water that tumbled over the rocks and imperfections of the ground. As the tempo of the downpour increased, the steady patter on the roof increased to a percussive thundering as the water washed down across the eaves and poured off the corners of the overhang to splash loudly into deep puddles that trailed along through the grass and pebbles of the courtyard. The low rumble of thunder caught the girl's attention and she turned her head to glance towards the sky, watching as the thickening clouds rolled across the sky and darkened the world around her. Like her mood…

Hyuuga Hinata sighed as the storm advanced onto the village of Konoha. On any other stormy day, she would easily be found curled up into a quiet corner of the expansive Hyuuga estate where she could avoid the other members of her sprawling family and simply commune with her favourite part of nature. But today the torrential downpour lacked the usual calming clarity that it brought to her.

_I guess it's storming inside as well as outside, then…_

She glanced to the side, to where her book lay on the tatami floor, opened to some page she had been idly glancing at. Hinata wasn't even sure what the pages said anymore. It wasn't that the book wasn't interesting, it was simply that their contents, no matter how fascinating, were unable to distract her thoughts from the convoluted paths and mazes that her psyche had been traveling down as of late. She picked up the discarded piece of literature and idly turned the page, letting her pale eyes skim over the words printed on the slightly worn pages. She tried in vain to concentrate on the task at hand, but it was not to be. A moment later, the offending item was flung across the room to impact with the wall before tumbling down into a half-open pile on the floor. Biting her lip in frustration, she drew her legs up to her body, draping her arms loosely around her knees with a sigh as her opalescent eyes watched the downpour outside the half-opened door. Resigning herself to the fact that her thoughts refused to obey her, she settled for simply watching the rivulets of liquid dripping off of the roof and letting her mind wander where it would. And wander it did; directly to the one point she had been trying to steer her thoughts from. Or rather, to the one _person_ who had occupied her thoughts the most as of late. Hinata let her eyes drift slightly closed as her mentality effortlessly painted a picture in her mind of the man who remained irritatingly forefront in her thoughts. Neji. He would be returning from his latest mission soon, she mused. The dark-haired Hyuuga relaxed her shoulders, letting go of her legs to stretch them out in front of her, eyes idly tracing the chakra lines of her bare feet as she leaned back on her hands, letting her head fall back to stare up at the ceiling above. It had been several months since she had last seen her Bunke cousin; his recent promotion to ANBU captain had been a great honor for both him and the clan, but had also taken away a great deal more of his time. Not that he would have cared about that, as absorbed in his training and his prowess as the dark-haired man always was. No, the only one who really cared that Hyuuga Neji was seldom home for more then a few days was probably the last person who he would have wanted to care. His Soke cousin, who held the absolute fear of death over him. The girl who held the keys to his cage in her small hands despite the fact that she wanted nothing more then to give them to him and step back to watch him fly. Hinata sighed again, relaxing her arms to lie back on the tatami floor. Her long hair pooled on the floor around her like a puddle of ink reflecting the slightest blue-violet from the darkened sky.

_Neji…_

She wasn't really sure when she had noticed the change in her feelings, not just in regards to Neji, but in regards to a number of things. Hinata smiled slightly as her memories unfurled through her. While she might not remember when she had noticed the changes, she had no doubts about what had prompted them. Strangely enough, it had been the loss of something rather then a gain of something. The loss of a dream, for that matter. She glanced up as the heavy patter of the rain began to ebb, frowning slightly. It was ironic that someone whose name meant "a sunny place" harbored something of a dislike for the heavenly body from which she took her name. But the sun was hot and fierce and burned. Not at all like the cool and calming nature of the storm. And while it's light gave life and laughter to everything around it, the petite girl who sat in rainstorms had never felt as though she was a part of it. Even the man who had held her affections for so long, the one who seemed to personify the sunshine himself, had never provided a place for her. Hinata smiled slightly at thoughts of the young Hokage-candidate.

_Naruto-kun. It was never meant to be, after all. I guess it just took me a long time to realize it._

It had been nearly three years ago when she had been forced to come to terms with the fact that the blond-haired boy she'd adored from afar would never share her feelings. Though the realization had initially left her feeling crushed and broken, huddled in her room shedding tears of regret, Hinata had regained her footing. Resigning herself to love him unrequitedly from afar, she hadn't noticed the slow ebb of her affections for the Kyuubi-boy. Rather, it had struck her one rainy day as she sat watching a storm much like this one. Looking through a small photo album that her teammates had given her, she had paused at a photo of herself and Naruto. He was being his usual brash and loud self, one arm slung companionably around her shoulders while he flashed a V-sign at the camera. She had been blushing a bright crimson colour, eyes averted away and hands clasped in front of her while she twiddled her fingers nervously. Letting slender fingers drift over the captured image on the page, she had not felt the twinge of heartache and regret that normally accompanied memories of Naruto. Rather, there had been a warm sense of camaraderie and affection that lacked the intense nature it had once possessed. But it wasn't the surrender of her feelings for Naruto that left the pale-eyed kunoichi floundering in doubt and insecurity, afraid to acknowledge the thoughts in her mind. No, it was not Naruto who occupied her thoughts and invaded her mind. It had been a startling realization about her cousin. Neji, a year older and much stronger then she could ever hope to be. The one who deserved, in Hinata's eyes, the position that had been given to her solely by accident of birth. The man who looked at her with white eyes filled with hate because she held the chain that bound him. She pulled the photo album off of the small shelf to the side of her and flipped it open to an early page. Blank white eyes stared down at the smiling children in the photo. It was she and Neji, of course. She had been 4 or 5 in the picture, and the two of them were dressed in their kimono. She was crying because she had dropped the stick of dango her father had bought her, and Neji was kneeling in front of her and handing her his treat. A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she gently touched the faded photo.

_Neji-niisan…you were so kind to me then. But you've changed so much since those days. I…I wish I could see that kindness again. I miss your smile._

She studied his face in the picture, feeling a twinge of sadness at how warm and open his expression was. So different from the Neji that she knew now. Closing the album, she drew her knees up to her chest again as the rain continued to drizzle from the sky. She'd never admitted to anyone but herself that, as a child, she had always viewed Neji as her knight in shining armour. The one who protected her and fought away anything that dared try to harm her. But those days had changed and were long gone. The Neji she adored as a child had become the Neji who saw her as the instrument of his bondage and the one who he would have taken a chance to kill. And take that chance he did, during that one abortive Chuunin exam. At the time, Hinata had believed her refusal to forfeit the match was because of Naruto's words and the inspiration that they planted in her. Now, looking back, she knew that there was more. It hadn't only been the words that struck through her fear and hesitation. It had been something in Neji's eyes. A sliver of something that seemed almost pleading to her. Begging for the chance to defy his fate. And so she had stood tall, fought back her fear, and tried to give it to him.

_Maybe that was when I first started loving you… at least, loving the you that you'd become. Even though I was too afraid of you to realize it._

His match with Naruto had changed many things, but the one thing that it hadn't changed was his attitude towards her. While his outward animosity seemed to disperse somewhat, no warmth grew in its place. He was polite, even considerate at times. But the hatred and resentment still burned in his eyes when they rested upon her and she knew that things hadn't changed. But it wasn't until she found herself watching him, studying him, and memorizing every motion, every glance, and every word, that it had hit her. She loved him. Deeply loved him, more then she'd ever loved Naruto, and probably _had_ loved him for a long time. She had been watching him train with her father when she finally understood, and with a gasp and widened white eyes, she had spun around, taking refuge behind the wall. She couldn't love him. Not Neji. Not the one person who would have most wanted to see her disappear. As she'd wrestled with the new information, she'd felt herself slump to the ground, knees buckling as tears threatened to overflow her milky eyes. Covering her face with her hands, she had squeezed her eyes tightly closed and allowed the back of her dark head to rest against the polished wood, concentrating on simply breathing and allowing the air to flow rhythmically from her lungs. It had been difficult, once she had allowed herself to see what her mind hadn't wanted to see. To see the way she always watched his every move, the way that her breath caught in her throat when he glanced her way with anything akin to kindness, and the way that she always found herself lingering slightly as she passed the door to his room on her travels around the estate. And it had remained difficult since then, to hide it. She was startled out of her musings by the mutter of voices as they passed the other side of the wall. Her ivory irises widened in shock as her sensitive ears registered a portion of their conversation.

"…Neji-sama…marriage…Hanabi-sama?"

She jerked around, wincing as the motion strained sore muscles, and strained to listen closer, face paling to nearly the same cast as her eyes as mind and ears put the pieces together. She turned back towards the discarded photo album; eyes haunted by more then just her memories.

_Neji-niisan…and Hanabi…_

Swallowing, she reached out a shaky hand for the album, pulling it closer and closing the cover. A marriage. Between her younger sister and the cousin she loved. The rational portion of her mind beat wildly at her, reminding her that the majority of what she overheard in this manner was merely rumor. But something about this gleaned scrap of knowledge clawed at her insides in a way that other rumors hadn't. It all seemed to make sense now. Why her father had been so much colder as of late, why he had seemed to have so little patience for her 'weakness" as he normally did. And why he'd ceased lecturing her about what made a "proper" heir to the Hyuuga.

_He plans to make Hanabi the heir. If that were the case, then it would make sense to have her marry Neji-niisan. He's a genius, the pride of the clan._

Despite how clear her deductions on the matter seemed to be, the fact that this line of reasoning could also have led to a marriage between HER and Neji completely escaped her frantic logic. Hinata stood up, brushing strands of long indigo hair out of eyes that seemed determined to leak moisture from their corners, and carefully stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her. She grimaced as the motion stretched her shoulder, bringing to the front of her mind awareness of the all-too-fresh bruises beneath the white robes she wore. Reaching up, she tentatively let fingers brush across the white fabric, tracing the dark purple markings she knew rested beneath them. Her father had been less than forgiving when she had approached him yesterday afternoon, in an attempt to convince him to train her as well as Neji. Rather then laughing and berating her with harsh words, he had scowled and turned her away, rewarding her continued pleas with beatings, as if to prove to her that she was unworthy of something so simple as his notice. Padding softly down the hallway on tabi-clad feet, she felt herself pause at the door that led to the Bunke part of the estate, and mentally forced her traitorous feet to continue their nearly silent traversment of the floors as she walked back to her room. This was it. She had suffered through her father's ill treatment of her, sat in agonizing silence as Neji ignored her, gulped through humiliating shame as her family praised and lauded her sister and belittled her, cried through aching loneliness at the knowledge that she would forever be watching Neji from afar. But this was something that she couldn't bear. Her heart might have been able to take the abuse, the loneliness, and the shame. It might have been able to suffer through knowing that the one she loved would never look at her with anything but bitterness. But the overheard snippet of conversation promised more then that, with it's whispered threads of possibility. Neji married to someone else. To her sister. To one of their other cousins. To _anyone_ else, was more then she could stand. Pearl-white eyes narrowed in determination before she quickly smoothed her features back into a pleasant appearance at the sound of a knock on the door.

"Yes?"

The door opened to reveal one of the house servants that she knew, kneeling on the floor with head bowed over their hands.

"Hinata-sama, Hiashi-sama has asked that I inform you that dinner is to be served in an hour."

Hinata nodded, feeling a twinge of regret for the servants that felt the need to grovel and prostrate themselves so. In a way, they were as much prisoners of the Hyuuga destiny as she and Neji were. She smiled slightly, shaking her head and stepping closer to the girl who kept her head bowed and eyes averted.

"Kori-chan, you know you don't have to bow to me like that. And you can just call me Hinata. Come on, don't be so nervous."

The blond-haired girl nodded slightly and raised her head, though she continued to keep her eyes averted. She bowed slightly, a faint smile gracing her young features. She wasn't very old, probably about the same age as Hanabi. Hinata felt a twinge of regret at thought of her younger sister. While Hanabi held no special regard for the older sister she lauded as a failure, Hinata had always envied her classmates and the easy relationships that many of them had with older and younger siblings alike. So different from the cold detachment or malicious hostility that Hanabi often directed towards her. Though she felt slightly guilty at the thought, she couldn't help but wish that it were Kori who was her sister. She'd known the girl since she was born, to parents who served the Soke of the Hyuuga. Kori had grown up in the Hyuuga estate, like Hinata, but their lives had been very different. It was Hinata who had first tried to bridge the gap, reaching out to the shy girl who served her tea in the afternoons and often brought messages from her father. At first, she had been unable to even breach the divide, as Kori remained stubbornly silent, afraid of what might happen should she step outside her station. But it hadn't been long before Hinata's kindness and gentle nature had begun to win over the blond and the younger girl had opened up.

"Ne Kori, how is your family? I haven't seen your father around the study recently, and I miss your mother's fried yams. Is everything alright at home?"

Kori nodded, though her expressive face took on a more somber note. She settled back onto the mat Hinata slid across the floor to her, legs folded underneath her in a respectable manner, eyes never meeting those of the Soke in front of her.

"Hai, Hinata-sama. They are well. Mother took ill a week ago, so Father has been nursing her. Because of that, they were given new duties so that he could take care of her without neglecting his duty to your family. But she is improving, and they should return to their usual positions within a few days."

The two girls chatted quietly for a few more minutes, if it could be called 'chatting". It was Hinata who led the conversation, gently prodding information out of the timid servant, who answered them softly and directly. Kori glanced at the clock on the wall and bowed to Hinata, forehead nearing the floor.

"Forgive me, Hinata-sama, but it is time that I was leaving. There are many duties to see to."

Hinata smiled and nodded as Kori bowed again and stood up, heading down the hallways as silently as she had come. Remembering the real reason why she'd bid Kori to stay, she stuck her head out of the door and called after the retreating figure.

"Kori! Do you know if Neji-niisan has returned from his ANBU mission yet? I remember he was supposed to be returning today."

Kori stopped and turned to face Hinata, bowing again.

"Yes, Hinata-sama. I was told that he returned an hour or so ago. Hiashi-sama told me that we were not to expect him for dinner because he would be spending the next several hours giving his report to the Hokage and being checked out by the medic-nins before he would be released to return home."

She bowed and continued on her way. Hinata watched her go, the short blond ponytail swinging slightly above the dark Hyuuga robes that clothed her. Shifting on the mat, she sat back, pulling the door closed. She let her mind wander as she stood up and walked softly over to the dresser that sat against the far wall. Pulling open one of the drawers, she rummaged within it, pulling out a fresh set of dark robes. She scowled slightly at the clothing. Hinata really didn't care for them, whether they were traditional or not. Black robes with white trim. Stark, harsh, sterile; the black and white serving as a perfect visual representation of the worlds that the Soke and Bunke inhabited. Two portions of the same garment, the same fabric, yet separate and unable to mix, the one consistently overpowering and shadowing the other.

_Why can't we just wear colours? Does Father and the rest of the family really have to try and squeeze and wring all of the colour and warmth and individuality out of everyone, so that all that is left is a series of hollow shells?_

With a mildly disgusted sigh, she tossed the pile of black and white silk onto the futon, running a hand through her long dark hair. She closed her eyes, letting her fingers comb through the soft indigo strands. It had been a long time since she had let her hair grow long. At first, she had done it as a way to possibly make Naruto notice her. As if the length of her hair, the style of her clothes, something so simple as that could change the way the loudmouthed blonde thought of her. It had been a silly notion at the time, and it was still a silly notion now as she thought back on it. She ran her fingers through the strands, gathering the heavy mass behind her neck and pulling it over her shoulders to run fingers through it, letting her eyes drift open slightly. It was long now, nearly to her waist. Like his. Though Hinata would have denied it if asked, keeping her hair this length somehow made her feel just a little bit closer to Neji. As if, when she closed her eyes as she brushed her fingers through her hair, she could imagine that this must be what it was like to touch _his_ hair. To feel it between her fingers, twist her slender hands through it and gather it into her fists. It was a guilty pleasure, certainly, but it was one of the few indulgences that Hinata allowed herself and she was loath to give it up. She knew very well that dreams and whims of brushing his hair were just that. Dreams. White eyes opened completely as she fiddled with the simple white obi that held her robes closed, loosening the knot to let it slide to the floor, where she indulged herself again and kicked it across the room. The white silk slid across the smooth floor, it's serpentine form seeming to slither as it bore the brunt of her frustrations. It settled into a pile against the far wall, pooling like a milk-white puddle on the tatami. Hinata sighed, letting her arms drop and allowing the robe to fall open. Turning towards the bed, she carefully slid the material off of her narrow shoulders, wincing as the simple friction caused by the meeting of fabric with skin made pain blossom along her back and shoulder. Biting back a hiss of discomfort, she let the robes puddle around her bare feet. Sparing a glance over one shoulder, she studied the lurid purple markings that marred the pristine ivory of her skin. Her father had indeed not been forgiving of the "transgression" she had committed by having the audacity to try and convince him she was worth his time. She let snow-white irises trace the delineation of dark blotches on her skin as she mentally studied them. With her fair skin, it was an easy matter to pick out every strike, every punch, even the marks from where he'd gripped her shoulder tightly stood out in sharp contrast to the pallor of her complexion. Eyes narrowing slightly, she carefully lowered herself to the futon, legs folding beneath her and eyes drifting closed. Channeling her chakra, she let the fingers of her uninjured arm drift slowly over the damaged skin, sighing in relief as the healing energy suffused her veins, mending the torn capillaries and easing the pain of the wounds. She wasn't good enough yet to completely heal them, but Hinata was momentarily glad for the fact that she'd begun training as a medic-nin. At least it meant that she could manage to face her father without grimacing in pain. Without giving him the satisfaction of knowing that she was still feeling the effects of his beating. As she felt her chakra begin to ebb, she allowed pastel-tinted eyes to open fully, letting out her pent-up breath in a sigh as she lowered her hand. Those same eyes narrowed slightly in frustration and aggravation. That she still felt this tired and drained after something as simple as that only served as yet another sign that she was still severely lacking in her quest for strength. Rotating her shoulder carefully, she smiled slightly at the increased range of motion she could now achieve. It was still sore, and still stiff, but at least it was bearable. She pushed herself up off of the futon, small hand grabbing a fistful of the black silk that sat on the blanket beside her. Slipping the robe around her shoulders, she pulled it closed in front, wrapping a fresh obi around her midsection. Reaching over one shoulder, she gathered the loose strands of indigo that fell down her back like water, pulling them over her shoulder and twisting them together. Lacing her fingers through the tresses, she pulled out a hair-tie and twisted it around them, securing her hair into the loose ponytail that was preferred by numerous members of her clan. Slipping her feet into the soft sandals that were standard indoor-wear for Hyuuga clan members, she headed to the door, pausing as she passed in front of the mirror. She stopped, studying her reflection in the polished glass. Dark, simple Hyuuga robes, long hair pulled back into traditional Hyuuga style, bangs across her eyes and stray strands of hair falling out on either side to frame a small pale face set with large opalescent eyes that seemed even larger in contrast, hitai-ate that marked her as a shinobi of Konohagakure resting around her neck in it's habitual place. She heaved a heavy sigh as her eyes traced the familiar lines of the image in the mirror. Not anything special. Not to Neji, not to her father, not to Naruto. Not to anyone. Just a girl, a Hyuuga who wasn't even worthy of her name. Pushing the errant thoughts from her turbulent mind, she pushed open the door and headed down the hallway, closing it behind her.

So, for those who are lost…

-Timestream-wise, Hinata is about 18 here. That makes Neji 19.

-If you don't like NejiHina as a pairing, then why the hell are you here?

-Yes, Hiashi is not a nice man. Sorry, I don't buy that whole "Hyuuga-healing" thing that the anime seems to think is going on. Families with that sort of dynamics don't change that quickly.

-Yup, Hinata's not quite the pushover that everyone thinks she is. She just lacks confidence. But that's something that can be learned…

Alright, so obviously for you to have gotten this far means you read the first part of my fic. I hope you enjoyed it, and I would love for you to review it and let me know what you liked/didn't like. I may or may not change anything depending on what you say. Hinata-fans, don't expect her to be the same shy little thing you are used to. She's still shy, still hesitant, but the girl's grown up a lot, and learned a lot of things. She's tougher then she seems, and a bit theme of this fic IS how she changes and strengthens. So please no "Hinata's OOC" crap. She's NOT OOC, if you'll pay close attention. She's simply developing and shedding her shackles.


	2. Chapter 2

A Darkened Ray of Sunshine

Summary: Hinata, wrestling with both her feelings for Neji and the harsh treatment she continues to receive from her family, finally decides that she can no longer bear her life as it is. Leaving Konoha, she finds herself flung into a world that is far different from the sheltered life that she once knew. And when an offer of dreams fulfilled comes from a most unexpected source, she grabs onto the chance offered to her. But what will happen when the very thing that she's been running from comes in search of her? Will she return to Konoha, and the life that she left behind, or will she stride forward on her own onto a new path?

Rating: R/M for language and situations as well as violence.

Pairings: NejiHina, ChouHina, other random Oto-pairings (hey, Orochimaru can sleep with whoever he wants and who's gonna tell him he can't?)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I'd sell my soul to Kishimoto-sensei if it would get him to make NejiHina canon.

Hyuuga Neji sighed, opening blank white eyes to stare at the ceiling above his head. He stretched one arm above his head, wincing slightly at the pull of sore muscles, and snagged the red cord that snaked across the tatami floor. Giving the cord a pull, he felt the resistance of an object attached to the other end, ears registering the slight scraping sounds as he pulled it towards him. Letting go of the cord, he stretched his fingers further, feeling smooth ceramic underneath his calloused fingertips. Clenching the digits around the smooth edge, he picked up the white mask and held it in front of him, alabaster-pale eyes tracing the red lines painted onto the mimicry of a bird's face. Ironic, in a way, the mask they had chosen for him. The caged bird hiding his face behind the image of that same bird. Truthfully, the mask he wore lent more clues to his identity then anything else about his person. At least, here in Konoha it did. Outside of the village he called his home, there were no persons who knew of the harsh fate that those born into the Hyuuga Bunke lived with.

He smirked, the harsh lines of his face drawn into something midway between a smirk and a scowl as he tossed the mask away from him, watching it skitter across the floor, spinning around into the corner, red strings spiraling after it like long red centipedes scuttling after their prey. With a sigh, he replaced his hand behind his head, fingers interlacing with the other hand that already rested there. It had been a difficult mission this time, and the ANBU had been needed for a longer amount of time then originally planned. Not that Neji minded. The 19-year old ANBU captain found solace in the work, an escape from the destiny that clawed at his heels with every breath. Out there, he wasn't Bunke, forcibly subservient to a weaker cousin. Out there, he was Hyuuga Neji, captain of the ANBU squad and prodigy of a prestigious clan. Out there, he could forget.

He pulled his hands out from behind his head and pushed himself up off of the tatami, grimacing as the offending shoulder muscles persisted in their complaint as to the treatment they had endured. He rotated the shoulder carefully, shinobi senses calmly and analytically finding the source of the pain. A strained rotator cuff, on the medial side. Nothing that he had the skills to fix, so he would have to consult with the Hyuuga medic-nin in the morning. Or perhaps Hinata-sama. The second thought caused a sour expression to mar his handsome features. Hinata-sama. The one who held the keys to his cage. She'd likely try to heal him, stuttering and trying to apologize for something as simple as breathing. Slipping out of the white armour that proclaimed his status as captain, he peeled off the black sleeveless top that was standard uniform, tossing it aside to land in a heap beside the discarded mask. Brushing an errant strand of chocolate-brown hair from his white eyes, he allowed his thoughts to drift to the cousin who held his fate in the palm of her small hand.

He'd seen her after dinner as she headed back to her room, but had made no move to acknowledge or speak to her. She'd been walking away from him, but he could tell by the way that her stance changed that she knew he was there. Neji knew she was afraid of him, though it seemed that over the last few years she had begun to either ignore it or put it aside to a degree. He didn't really know, and neither did he care to a great extent which one it was. Regardless, she no longer flinched around him unless he spoke harshly to her, and Hinata-sama flinched when _anyone_ spoke harshly to her.

_She's so weak, yet she holds such power over me. It truly must be my fate, because nothing else would condone such an abject abandonment of the natural order of things. Strength dominates weakness, those with strength rule over those without. But not here…_

There was something else that Neji could tell from her gait and her stance. Though she did a rather good job of hiding it, he could see stiffness in her upper body, a hesitance in her frame that he recognized from years of training and being subjected to the same ailment. He frowned slightly at the thought, though the Hyuuga prodigy was slightly unsure as to why.

_Likely Hiashi-sama beat her again. I would have thought that one so weak would know better then to incite his wrath towards her. Though I can't help but wonder what Hinata-sama would have done to anger him. She has always been nauseatingly shy and timid and she hardly seems the sort to have the courage to do anything. She should know better. It is her fate to be weak, so why does she attempt to fight it so?_

It grated on his nerves the way his timid little cousin cowered so, the way that she always tried to escape her fate. And then when she was punished for it, she didn't fight back, didn't attempt to argue. Simply stood there and took the beating, took the harsh words. It infuriated him. She was so…so… placid. Not at all possessing of the manner and bearing that someone of the illustrious Hyuuga clan should be proud to display. An utter and abject failure. Neji scowled, raking a hand through dark hair, the simple motion dislodging the strips of bandage that covered his branded forehead, revealing the green marking of the juuin. His pearl-white eyes studied the strips of cloth, their presence distracting him from the portion of his mind that always seemed to argue with him when he thought about Hinata-sama. The part that whispered to him, reminding him of the warmth he had felt for her as a child, and that dared to allude to a deeper reasoning why he felt anger at the knowledge that she had simply let her father beat her. He ruthlessly crushed the voice in the back of his mind, refusing to acknowledge the tendrils of memories that threatened to swamp him. No, he didn't have those sorts of dreams or thoughts. Not about anyone, and certainly NOT about her.

_Besides…one or two dreams like that don't mean anything. Everyone has them, even about people they don't like, sometimes._

With an angry sigh, he rolled over and flicked the light switch, not even bothering to change out of the remnants of his uniform. Not that it mattered. He would simply be donning a new one in the morning. He stretched his arms over his head before relaxing and letting the familiar rhythm of sleep overtake his exhausted body, hoping that this time his dreams would not contain dark hair, pale eyes, and silvery laughter.



The mirror stared back at her as Hinata stood in front of it, studying her reflection. She had discarded the flowing robes and monochromatic lines of the Hyuuga robes in favor of even more monotony in the form of a pair of soft black pants bandaged at the ankles paired with a sleek black long-sleeved shirt with a mesh insert at the neck. On her back, she carried a simple black duffel bag.

_Light… Have to pack light, so that I can move quickly. If Father finds out before I'm gone…_

She shuddered at the thought of what her father would do when he learned that she had vanished. Or rather, when he learned that an unsealed pair of Byakugan had left Konohagakure in the middle of the night. The kunoichi frowned at that thought. She had no remaining illusions as to the feelings her paternal parent harboured for her. No wasted dreams and childish ideals about how he really loved her and just didn't know how to show it. No, she knew how he felt. She was nothing to him. Nothing but a failure, a waste of his DNA and Konohagakure's space, and an unsealed pair of Byakugan. And that was another thing; the juuin, that Neji wore through so much pain. Hinata knew perfectly well that the only reason her younger sister had not been subjected to the cage of the juuin was her own repeated failures as a heir to the Hyuuga. While the juuin could be removed once cast, it was a difficult procedure that required absolutely precise chakra control. The sort of precise control that she knew very well her father did not posess. Which meant that to remove the juuin, it was a fairly draining ordeal for him. Not something he'd risk without being certain. Thus, it made no sense to mark a member of the Hyuuga who was very likely going to become its next heir, as the current heir was so… pathetic.

She scowled, turning away from the mirror and it's memories and feeling the heavy weight of her long hair swing slightly with her movements. Letting her chin drop, she reached over one shoulder, tentatively fingering the midnight-hued strands. Forget…that was what she had to do. Forget her feelings, forget her emotions, forget everything that her life here stood for. And start anew somewhere else. The line of her mouth fixed itself into a firm slash as pale fingers closed around the ponytail like the coils of a snake around its prey. Translucent lids slid shut over pale orbs as she lifted the dark waterfall out of the way, bringing her other hand up to meet it's mate. There was the faintest sound and a flash of steel as the kunai sliced cleanly through the strands, then silence. Hinata let her hands drop, the kunai impacting with the tatami mats with a soft thud. Long strands of sinewy darkness slid from between clenched fingers, pooling on the floor like a puddle of ink, ends splaying out across the fibers of the floor. She raised her head, sparing one last glance in her mirror before she turned and softly slid the door open, heading out into the hall as she shouldered the duffel bag on her slight form.

Her pale skin and luminous eyes stood out in stark contrast to the dark shades of her clothing. In the dimly-lit hallway, her dark-clad form was a mere whisper of shadow and motion as she moved, carefully controlling her movements to allow not one whisper of sound to escape as she stole into the library and placed the final things into the bag. Pausing in her endeavors, she held up one scroll, luminescent eyes hardening as she read the characters emblazoned on the label. Fingertips clenched tightly around it for a moment before she slipped it into the bag along with the other knowledge she had stolen. Though, in truth, it couldn't really be considered stealing if you were merely taking copies. It was unlikely that the loss of a few copied scrolls would even be noticed, much less worried about, during the uproar that was sure to arise once the departure of the clan heir was discovered. She brushed an errant strand of hair out of her face and glanced around carefully, alert for any motion as the wooden door slid closed behind her, continuing down the narrow pathway towards the exit, and an uncertain future.

As she passed the hallways leading to the section of the estate that housed the Bunke, she could feel her feet begin to slow, soft footsteps coming to a stop as she reached the door. Mind whirling, she turned away, taking another step further away from the one place she wanted more then anything to spend her time. But something pulled her back. She sighed, turning back to the offending door and fixing it with a glare that seemed to lack any real animosity. Instead, it was tinged with a lingering sadness, that of someone who has finally given up their fight and acquiesced to defeat.

_One more time…I…I suppose it can't hurt… Especially since it'll be the last time…ever._

Dragging a deep breath of air into her lungs, she gingerly reached for the door, sliding it open with a practiced stealth and slipping into the blackness beyond. Shifting the sack on her shoulder, she walked the hallways of the Bunke sector with a strange sort of automated step. She had walked these halls before, many more times then she knew most of her family realized. Her feet led her, independent of mind or heart, bringing the girl unerringly to the one room that she wanted to both run to and run from at the same time. Alabaster eyes stared blankly at the polished wood and the thin rice-paper squares that joined the lacquered pieces of ebony together into their familiar geometric pattern. One shaking hand reached forward, fingertips curling into the indention at the edge of the door, grasping familiar handholds and sliding the lightweight structure aside. She watched as the shaft of faint illumination from the opened door slid with steady grace across the floor to rest momentarily on the sleeping face before it's light was stifled by the shogi-pane as she slid it shut again. Taking a moment to allow her eyes to adjust, she held her breath and suppressed her chakra carefully as she padded over to the futon. Dropping down slowly to her knees, she sat perfectly still, paper-white eyes tracing over the features she had grown to cherish.

He looked different like this. Asleep, the lines of tension that so-often marred his handsome features were erased from him as if they'd never been there. His face was peaceful, at rest, remniscent of the carefree little boy that he'd once been. She reached out a hand as if to brush the long dark hair from his face, but pulled back before her skin could meet his. The girl shook her head slightly, as if in silent admonishment of what she'd been about to do. No, she knew better then to touch him. The fact that she was able to sneak in and watch him this way in itself was amazing to her. A trained shinobi, an ANBU captain at that, by all rights he ought to have had her pinned to the floor with an arm behind her back from the moment her fingertips touched the door. But for some reason, he never awoke when she came to him like this. The Hyuuga scion had never questioned it, and simply took it as a felicitous turn of fortune that she was able to steal even just this small bit of closeness.

_Not that he'd let me get this close if he were awake, after all. He'd push me away, spurn me with coldness and harsh words. Like he always does. But not anymore… No, there won't be any more ice and cold fire. Because I won't be coming here at night anymore, will I, Neji-niisan? No not nii-san; Neji-kun. Even though I can't ever call you that with my real voice, it's what I think of you as. My Neji-kun._

She sat there for several minutes, pale-hued eyes watching the slow rise and fall of his bare chest as he slept, vision moving over the tracery of muscles and scars that had, over time indeterminable, become a pattern that she could trace in her sleep had she been asked to. Biting her bottom lip, she carefully got to her feet, walking silently around to the other side of the futon and sitting down. As carefully as she could, Hinata slid over next to him, resting on top of the blankets, the barest fraction of space separating his back from her body. She stared at his back, watching the muscles shift slightly with his breathing. Taking a deep breath, she leaned forward slightly to rest her forehead against the spot directly between his shoulderblades, closing her eyes with a small sigh as she felt herself relax. THIS was her guilty pleasure, the secret that she kept even more well-guarded then that of her feelings. She relished this, coveted it as the only form of intimacy she would likely ever have with the object of her affections, and on those nights when she had dared to take the chance, it had been difficult to tear herself away before she stayed long enough to outlast the charm that always seemed to magically keep Neji's sleep peaceful and undisturbed while she was there. It was also difficult to resist the urge to mold her body to his, to wrap her arms around him and pull him close to her, but she didn't dare broach the mere inch of space that separated them. That inch was safety. It was a barrier between what she desired and what she could have. Backing up slowly, she sat up and spared one last longing glance at Neji's face before she stood up and slipped out of the room and into the night.

_Sayonara…Neji-kun…_

Alright folks, that concludes chapter 2 of ADROS, I hope it's been a pleasant read for you. Please review and let me know what you liked, didn't like, etc. Doesn't mean I'll change anything, but I DO try and take things into consideration when I get them. So Neji-fans, I think I did our little ball of angst justice with this. Even though the story is mostly Hina-centric, it's certainly got a huge chunk of Neji in it. (it would have to, being that it IS a NejiHina fic.) The first parts of it deal much more with Hinata then they do with Neji, but later on he takes a more central role so don't worry.


	3. Chapter 3

A Darkened Ray of Sunshine

Chapter 3

Summary: Hinata, wrestling with both her feelings for Neji and the harsh treatment she continues to receive from her family, finally decides that she can no longer bear her life as it is. Leaving Konoha, she finds herself flung into a world that is far different from the sheltered life that she once knew. And when an offer of dreams fulfilled comes from a most unexpected source, she grabs onto the chance offered to her. But what will happen when the very thing that she's been running from comes in search of her? Will she return to Konoha, and the life that she left behind, or will she stride forward on her own onto a new path?

Rating: R/M for language and situations as well as violence.

Pairings: NejiHina, ChouHina, other random Oto-pairings (hey, Orochimaru can sleep with whoever he wants and who's gonna tell him he can't?)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I'd sell my soul to Kishimoto-sensei if it would get him to make NejiHina canon.

Neji scowled darkly behind his mask as he listened to the reports that were currently flowing in from all sources. Ivory eyes peered invisibly out from behind the painted ceramic curves, facsimile of it's avian face betraying none of the turbulent emotions that boiled just beneath the surface of the young man's countenance as he watched the blonde woman in front of him rifling through scrolls and piles of papers, elegant eyebrows pulled together in frustration above honey-brown eyes that flashed with her own aggravation. With a muttered curse, Konohagakure's fifth Hokage finally found the scroll that was eluding her and broke the seal with one crimson-painted fingernail before wrenching the sheaf of parchment open with a flourish, the rolled remainder skittering across her desk to unroll into a pile of tarnished white at her feet as she studied it carefully. With a heavy sigh, she leaned back and rubbed her temples as if to dispel the tension that dwelt there. The dark-haired captain remained silent as his overseer continued muttering to herself, consulting charts and scrolls, allowing his mind to once again focus itself on the reason why he, as well as a number of other shinobi, were now assembled in this room. What was it that Nara Shikamaru always seemed to say? "Troublesome?" Yes, that was it. However, the mere connotation of "troublesome" didn't seem to cover a fraction of the irritation that was currently grating on the Hyuuga prodigy's mind. He had awoken that morning to veritable chaos. Throwing in a clean shirt, Neji had ventured out of his room to find the entirety of the Hyuuga estate in an uproar, and the outer guards facing the fury of Hiashi's wrath. Hinata-sama had disappeared in the middle of the night, and though the signs pointed to her having left of her own volition, the Hyuuga clan head was vehemently refusing to believe that his meek and cowering elder daughter had possessed the will to simply leave in this manner. And so it was thus that not only the ANBU, but also many of the shinobi who called Hyuuga Hinata "friend", were gathered here in the Hokage tower awaiting instructions.

The tall man sighed slightly to himself, ignoring the impulse to simply turn and walk away. It wasn't as though he cared that much for the girl in question, at least not beyond the fact that it was meant to be his duty to serve her. But Hiashi-sama had been insistent that Hinata's disappearance be given the highest of priority. And so here Neji stood, chafing underneath the white armour and ceramic mask at once again having to spend his time and energy submitting to someone weaker. Closing alabaster eyes, he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, allowing his mind to settle and putting aside his own frustrations and allow the calm to overtake him again. His eyes opened slightly at the feeling of slender fingers pressed softly against his arm in a momentary gesture of comfort and glanced to the side at the smaller figure wearing the white mask painted in the guise of a panda. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly behind the concealment. Tenten. His kunoichi teammate always seemed to know when he was losing his usual calm and collected demeanor, and at the same time she also knew when to keep her mouth shut about it, something that Neji was unabashedly grateful for. He gave her the barest of nods and she dropped her hand silently to turn back to regarding the Hokage. The Hyuuga prodigy knew very well that it was common rumor that he and his teammate were romantically involved, but the two of them knew better. While their closeness might not have been decipherable to outsiders, the longhaired ANBU knew perfectly well that neither he nor she harbored any such feelings towards each other. Rather, their relationship was one born of trust and hard work and long hours spent learning the others' moves, thoughts, and reactions. It was a bond of teamwork rather then a bond of emotion. She knew him better then most people did, and beyond that she respected him and understood him. Tenten knew his moods, knew when he needed his space, when he needed to work out his anger, understood when he simply needed someone _there_. Neji allowed his blank white eyes to drift from Tenten and around the room, taking note of the other assembled comrades who had come both at Tsunade's request and of their own accord.

The group had certainly changed over the years. While most of the genin teams had broken up slowly as their members grew and changed and were promoted to different areas and levels, the group as a whole had remained fairly close friends. His eyes took note of each one as their gaze fell upon the face. Haruno Sakura, standing by Tsunade and taking note of everything her mentor did. The blush-haired kunoichi had been one of the group who had changed the most, and it showed in the fierce determination in her eyes that was overshadowed by a steely calm as she nodded in response to something the Hokage said. The young medic-nin had proven to everyone that she deserved the ANBU ranking that she'd declined, showing herself to possess skills that her mentor said rivaled even her own at the same age. Neji watched as she turned to Uzumaki Naruto, glaring at him as he seemingly ignored her question before slamming him in the back of his blonde head and knocking the haphazardly-placed fox mask from his forehead. The young man in question spun around and picked up his mask, demanding to know why he'd been hit, forgetting his current argument with the dark-haired ANBU on his other side. Sai simply grinned and muttered something Neji was certain was probably scathing, causing the future Rokudaime Hokage to spin back around and start yelling at him again. The ANBU captain sighed to himself, mentally thankful that he wasn't assigned to a team with the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. Naruto had certainly proven himself an admirable shinobi and a formidable ANBU, but his attitude had remained as it always was. ANBU or not, he was still the number one loudmouth ninja who polished off 12 bowls of Ichiraku ramen every time the ANBU gathered themselves outside of work for some "quality time". The last member of Team 7 was absent, Hatake Kakashi having been sent on an S-ranked mission a week prior to the current uproar, but Neji couldn't help smirking slightly at the way the perpetually-late jounin's presence was represented in the corner of an orange book that stuck out of the edge of Naruto's bag.

Blank eyes drifted from the noisy cacophony that surrounded the Uzumaki shinobi to the intense quiet that suffused the next small group. While the former Team 7 always seemed to be arguing despite their well-known closeness, the members of Hinata's team were listening intently to Tsunade's words. The Hyuuga Bunke studied their faces in turn as well. Inuzuka Kiba, who had let his hair go long and seemed even more beast-like then he had in their younger days. Neji frowned slightly at the Chuunin. He had never particularly liked the dog-boy all that much, perhaps because the latter always seemed to have such a ridiculous infatuation with Hinata. The young Hyuuga had always viewed it as pointless, especially given the well-known fact that Hyuuga Hinata was in possession of an enormous crush on one Uzumaki Naruto. Although that as well was a pointless venture in Neji's mind.

_She ought to know very well that neither of them would ever be a suitable match for her in Hiashi-sama's eyes. A Hyuuga heir does not have the luxury of choice when it comes to a mate._

The other member of Team 8 remained, as always, stoic and quiet. Aburame Shino, recently returned from a mission with his genin team. The insect-user had surprised many people with his concern for the missing member of their team, dispelling numerous rumors and accounts of his inability to display any emotion at all. The tall silent Jounin stood beside Kiba, his quiet intensity completely at odds with the other man's barely-constrained energy and emotion. Behind them slightly stood their fourth team-member, Yuuhi Kurenai. When news of Hinata's disappearance had circulated through Konohagakure, it had been the Jounin who'd viewed her as a surrogate daughter who was the first to take any sort of action. Beside the Aburame, Neji's own other team-member stood in his customary green jumpsuit, pale gray armour and painted monkey mask gracing his muscular figure. It had been a shock to most of Konoha when Rock Lee, talented though he was in his taijutsu, had managed to achieve his ranking of ANBU. Perhaps the only ones who weren't shocked were the members of his team, Tenten from an amused acceptance that Lee seemed to triumph over all other things, why not this, and Gai-sensei through his oddly-displayed and oftentimes embarrassing faith in his "kawai student". While his team-mates had been surprised when the stoic Hyuuga seemed fairly nonplussed upon Lee's promotion, he knew that despite the longstanding rivalry he and the thick-eye browed taijutsu master shared, there rested underneath it a strong bond of friendship and understanding. Though he had oftentimes exchanged harsh words with the other man, Neji would likely have been the first person to admit an enduring level of respect for his teammate. His pearlescent eyes watched as Lee nodded enthusiastically at something Kurenai said, then turned to flash a big toothy grin at his fiancé, Haruno Sakura. THAT in itself was something else that no one had ever expected, but it seemed that the future had smiled fondly on the strange young man with the generous nature.

That left the other two people in the room. Nara Shikamaru stood leaning against the wall in his customary position, somewhat bored look on his face. The eternal Chuunin seemed to be about as interested at being here as he would have been to be in any sort of rigorous activity, the only clue to his attention being the way his eyes, though slightly closed, never left the Hokage's face. In sharp contrast to his demeanor was that of his girlfriend. Ino was the picture of concern, long hair pulled back into a high ponytail and then braided to keep it out of her way. The interrogation-team member seemed poised on the balls of her feet, as if ready to spring off of them at a moment's notice, though a sharp eye could easily catch the way the fingers on her one hand interlaced with Shikamaru's.

Neji was broken out of his mental musings by the slamming of one scarlet-tipped hand down onto the polished wood of the desk, sending inkpots toppling over and scrolls skittering across the surface. The Hokage pushed herself back from the desk, standing up to cast her gaze across the assembled group with an irritated sigh. She pulled out a fresh scroll, dipped her brush into the ink, and began writing at a brisk pace, the tension in her hands evident in the harsh strokes the black ink made on the creamy face of the paper. Signing her name with a flourish, she rolled up the scroll and sealed it, placing it in the center of the table before she looked at the ANBU captain who stood silently on the other side of the room. She didn't know how the older Hyuuga felt regarding the sudden and unexpected disappearance of his cousin, but she'd be willing to bet that his mental state lacked the same sort of confused and frantic worry that seemed to suffuse the majority of the gathered group. Tsunade sighed inwardly as the thought brought up other thoughts. She'd never liked the Hyuuga clan much when she was growing up here, and now she understood even more the reasoning behind her distaste for the group. Hyuuga meant nobility, and along with it came the strictures, the rules, and the cold impassionate attitude that the life of an individual came at far less worth then the life and continuation of the clan. The blonde woman knew very well that there was a time when all of the noble families of the village shared similar views, and had gone to great lengths to keep their lives thus and to cling to their traditions. But over the years, the other three had seemed to relax, slowly letting go of the harsh guidelines and systems that trapped and caged the very children who were their future. The Uchiha clan had been wiped out, but the Akimichi and Aburame clans were now seldom distinguishable from any other clans of the village save for the fact that each clan possessed their own distinct and separate district of Konohagakure. But not the Hyuuga. No, they clung fast to their isolation, their segregation from the rest of the village, seldom marrying outside of their sprawling clan, some members rarely even leaving the district.

_There are probably people living in that estate who have never even seen the rest of the village. It's no wonder that Hinata would have wanted to escape. Someone gentle and meek as she was would suffocate under that sort of harsh treatment. And Neji…that clan just doesn't realize that its roots are decaying its foundation when they build them on such things as curse seals and different houses. They're tearing it apart at the seams while blindly looking the other way._

She sighed, rubbing the fingers of one hand across her temples before addressing the group assembled in front of her.

"Alright, so I take it that everyone here has heard the news regarding Hyuuga Hinata?"

At a nod from everyone else, she continued with her assessment of the situation.

"What we know at this point is that sometime between last night and this morning, Hinata vanished from her home at the Hyuuga estate. We found a kunai in her room, but no traces of blood. Also, several items of hers were found missing that may indicate that she left willingly. However, as we do not know for certain whether this is the case, and many of you don't believe that Hinata would do such a thing, we plan to investigate this disappearance fully. Neji."

She turned her amber gaze to the ANBU captain, who stood up straighter and nodded his notice.

"I want you to be in charge of the primary retrieval unit. Take Lee, Tenten, and Sai with you and try to track where Hinata might have gone. I know you and your team are used to working together, but the three of you need the change-up once in awhile and it'll do Sai good as well to work with a different team. His skills will also aid you in tracking any traces that you find."

Neji nodded, noting with silence the accompanying nods of his teammates and the brush-toting man. Despite his quick acceptance of the mission, his mind inwardly chafed at being saddled with this burden. As if Hinata herself wasn't burden enough in his life. However, the Hyuuga knew very well that while the Hokage might not hold him personally responsible for the retrieval of his missing cousin, Hiashi _would_ hold Neji responsible for the retrieval of the Hyuuga clan's heir. As he would hold Neji responsible should something untoward _happen_ to that selfsame heir. Sighing inwardly, the Hyuuga prodigy contented himself with paying closer attention to the rest of Tsunade's orders. Perhaps the mindless work he had become accustomed to as an ANBU would distract him from the grating irritation and weight of being made responsible for Hinata's shenanigans. Likely it wouldn't, but at least he could allow himself to pretend that it might. He knew very well that it was only Hiashi and the clan elders who truly believed that Hinata had been somehow abducted. Most of the house servants and a good number of the Bunke knew better. Though most of his branch clung to the same sort of enmity and distaste for the Soke that Neji possessed, the young man was aware that he numbered among the small percentage who directed their animosity over their fates at the Soke's heir rather then it's head. There were a great more Bunke who, in truth, felt sorry for the girl and viewed her as a soul who was as entangled and entrapped by destiny as they themselves were. It wasn't that hard, if one thought as they did, to understand and conceive of a reason why the young Hyuuga heir would flee from the bindings that her own family placed on her. But that was just the problem, at least in Neji's mind. Putting aside the fact that he thought the other Bunke were fools for not recognizing that it was SHE who would one day hold their reigns, the clan's genius simply didn't believe that the mewling little kitten of a girl had the strength of will and the determination to simply walk out. If it had been Hanabi, perhaps. But not Hinata. No, she was forever groveling and apologizing and deferring to others. She would simply sit and take the abuse and then go to her room and cry in her solitude as she always had done.

_She wouldn't run away. She doesn't have the spirit for it. She's weak, as she has always been. And even if she DID run away, she's probably cowering somewhere in the forest and crying._

He stepped forward to take the scroll that Tsunade held out for him, the motion bringing him seamlessly out of his inner musings. Stepping back to his position beside his teammates, he watched as she turned to the next item on her list, pulling out another scroll.

"Shikamaru, I want you, Kotetsu, Izumo, and Asuma on this as well. If someone took Hinata, I want to know whom and I want to know why. And I can't think of a better team for gathering that information then yours. This will give you clearance as a liaison to the surrounding villages in case you need to draw some backup from our allies. You already have clearance in Iwagakure and Sunagakure, so use it to your advantage. Ino, I know you want to help Shikamaru and I know that you two work well together, but right now you're needed more here. However, I want you on standby in case we need your skills for interrogation. And don't forget that you test for Jounin next month. Don't get distracted by this."

Ino looked for a moment as though she wanted to protest, but a glance and a shake of Shikamaru's head seemed to quell the urge and she simply nodded. Tsunade turned to the remainder of the group with a sigh, rubbing her temples again.

"The rest of you, you're dismissed."

If the fingertips massaging her temples had been to prepare for the outburst that was eminent, they were a well-placed balm indeed. As soon as her words rang out, the entirety of the room erupted into a crescendo of sound as voices jostled each other in their attempts to rise above every other voice in the room while their owners gestured and yelled in protest. After only a moment of this medley of noise, a vein began to pulse in her forehead slightly and with a growl and a glare, she slammed one fisted hand into the wall beside her, the chakra releasing almost instinctively and amplifying her immense strength such that the entire tower shook slightly. It served as an effective crowd-control method, as the entirety of the room fell almost immediately silent, some faces bearing looks of apprehension at having seen the Hokage's temper firsthand at some earlier date. That done, Tsunade sighed and stood up, fixing each of them with a steely honey gaze as she addressed them all in turn.

"Now, will you kindly CEASE this noise and listen?"

She turned first to Kurenai and the rest of Team 8 with a sigh.

"You three should know very well why you aren't allowed on this mission. It's the same reason that Team 7 was taken off of the last mission that we ever sent after Uchiha Sasuke. You're _too involved_. I'm well aware that Hinata is a precious person to you, but you're letting your emotions cloud your judgment at this point. What will you do if you find that she DID leave of her own free will? What if she's been subjugated; turned against Konoha? Can you fight her, the teammate that you treasure? That you _love_? Could you kill her if it came down to it? Or watch her kill herself? You have NO IDEA what you're going up against and none of you, not even you Kurenai, are equipped to handle what we might be facing."

Kiba flinched at the mention of love. He knew very well not only how he felt about the petite dark-haired girl, but that there were plenty of people who at least had a good idea of his feelings. It didn't bother him really, if they knew he loved her then they knew that he loved her. What had always gotten to Kiba was how the girl who was completely unaware of his feelings for her harbored feelings for someone else who was just as unaware of them. He glanced at Naruto, canine eyes narrowing slightly. No, it wasn't fair. Hinata was the only one who always seemed to not be able to come to terms with the fact that Naruto didn't love her, would NEVER love her. Indeed, the blond had shut himself into his apartment for a week and a half when news came that the time for Orochimaru to take another body had come and passed. No more news of Sasuke had come after that, and the entirety of Konoha had been forced to come to terms with the knowledge that the Uchiha would not be returning to the leaf village. The Inuzuka boy knew that over the last couple of years, the Hyuuga girl's affections for the Uzumaki boy had cooled, but he knew that something had replaced them. And it irked him that he didn't know what it was. He knew, from the way she acted at times, the way she would gaze wistfully at the decorations on Valentine's Day, or the small sigh that escaped her throat when they went as a team to watch the sakurahana. Knew that while Naruto no longer held her feelings, there was someone else who had taken his place. And Kiba knew that it wasn't him. He glanced sideways at his teammate, but the Aburame boy remained as expressionless as ever. Their sensei stepped forward, voice raised in protest.

"But Tsunade-sama! I can't just stay behind, Hinata is my responsibility. And beyond that…"

The blond-haired Hokage didn't give the scarlet-eyed Jounin the chance to finish her statement. Her amber-hued eyes locked with Kurenai's red orbs as she shook her head.

"I said, NO. Kurenai, don't be ridiculous. Hinata is a grown girl, she's no more your responsibility then I am. I realize that you feel responsible for her because she was your student, but that is precisely WHY you are not allowed on this mission. Besides…you're three months pregnant."

Kurenai's eyes widened. She opened her mouth, as if to say something, but closed it instead, eyes downcast. Tsunade sighed, folding her hands on the table in front of her.

"No, I wasn't spying on you or anything. You know as well as I do that you submitted your request for removal from active duty in a few weeks. And while that change might not go into effect for another month or so, I have no intention of sending a pregnant woman on this sort of mission. You're needed HERE, Kurenai. You have a current genin team, if I'm not mistaken. What about them?"

Kurenai hung her head slightly. The Hokage was right, after all. Even if she wasn't pregnant, she had the new genin team to think about. She couldn't place the safety of one past student over the welfare of all of the others. She sighed and nodded.

"Hai…Hokage-sama."

Tsunade nodded, turning her gaze next to the blond boy and her apprentice, who stood waiting what she would say. Naruto stepped forward, one hand fisted in front of him, face angry.

"Baa-chan, I can't just STAY here! Hinata-chan is my friend, I have to go and help her!"

She sighed, feeling the headache beginning already. No point in arguing with this one. She glared, slamming one palm down onto the desk hard enough to make the pictures on the wall rattle. Naruto gulped slightly, but didn't back down.

"No, I won't stay behind! I'm not letting someone else go! We've lost enough people already!"

At that, Sakura hissed and darted forward. She grabbed her friend's hand, yanking him back with a whispered admonishment.

"Naruto! Don't say that!"

Naruto's eyes widened for a moment, then he fell silent, glancing sidelong at Shikamaru and Ino, who were also looking at the floor. The rest of the room shifted uncomfortably as his words brought to mind the people who were conspicuously absent from the gathering. Uchiha Sasuke, presumably taken by Orochimaru as his next container. Though the Sharingan-user had left the village of his own free will, the attempts to bring him back had not only exhausted much of the strength of his fellow shinobi, but had led to the loss of yet another comrade. Akimichi Chouji, gone missing 5 years earlier in that first abortive mission against the Sound 5. Shikamaru clenched one fist silently by his side as the reminder of his lost friend reopened wounds that never quite seemed to heal. That had been _his_ mission, _his_ test of abilities. That the mission itself had failed wasn't the issue. There would be other missions. But he, as the Chuunin leader, had made the decision to separate, to leave the spiral-cheeked boy behind to face a terrifying foe. He had believed in Chouji's strength, believed when his friend assured them that he would catch up. Even though he had felt the icy hand of doubt clench at his insides, he had pushed it aside with a smile and a nod before heading off to continue the mission, leaving his closest friend behind. And he had failed. Failed the mission, and failed to protect one of the few people who Shikamaru truly wanted to protect. The medical team had found the relatively unharmed shadow-user first, and he'd been able to lead them to his fallen comrades. But when they reached that pit of blasted earth, there had been nothing there save the bloodstained and tattered hitai-ate that his friend had worn. Tsunade had sent scouting parties, but no sign of the heavyset nin was ever found and Konoha was forced to concede to the loss of one of her sons. A funeral had been held, though the coffin was empty of everything but several photographs and memories held by those who remained. His name had been carved onto the rock, next to the name of the older brother none of his friends knew about, the brother who had died during the war with Iwagakure.

Tsunade sighed as the atmosphere in the room changed. This was NOT what she needed right now…if it wasn't bad enough that the Hyuuga clan was breathing down her neck, now this entire group would be in a broody mood. She raised her head to look at Naruto, who looked suitably mollified. Tsunade knew, as everyone else did, that he hadn't meant to bring up thoughts of Chouji. It wasn't the smiling Akimichi that filled his mind. It was a pair of emotionless black eyes crowned by a shock of black hair and resting above a sultry mouth that was often fixed into a smug smirk. His friends knew by now that the Uchiha had meant much more to the loudmouthed shinobi then he'd ever let on, and they respectfully kept their distance on days where the blond retreated inside himself and refused to talk to anyone. They gave him his space when he disappeared, although they all knew that he went one of three places; either to the statues at the waterfall, to the bridge where the old Team 7 used to meet, or to the Uchiha mansion itself. But none of them spoke of Sasuke; none of them said what they knew Naruto felt. That, had they tried harder, they perhaps could have been able to bring their comrade back home. And it didn't matter to which comrade their respective thoughts alluded. The feelings of guilt and failure were the same. The amber-eyed Hokage stood up, sliding several scrolls across the polished wood surface of the desk towards the assembled nin. Neji stepped forward, gloved hand closing around the one that carried the red and black edging denoting it as a mission for the ANBU before stepping back and awaiting dismissal. Casting a glance at Naruto, Shikamaru snagged the one with the blue and gray colours for the Niju Shoutai, nodding to Tsunade as he did so. The other scrolls were left laying in the center of the desk. She cocked her head to one side.

"Naruto, Kiba. Don't just stand there. Those are your missions. I don't want either of your teams sitting around here and stewing, _or_ trying to go after Neji's team. They're both A-rank, so don't complain about getting 'crappy missions' this time."

With a slight nod, the two recalcitrant shinobi picked up their scrolls and stepped back. Tsunade sat back down, leaning back in her chair and placing palms flat onto the desk. At her nod, the group dispersed, individual teams splitting up and heading for home to ready themselves for their respective missions. As they walked, Naruto raised one hand slightly towards the spiky-haired Niju Shoutai member, opening his mouth as if to say something. A bandaged hand placed gently over his own and a small shake of Rock Lee's head stopped him. Gritting his teeth, the Kyuubi-boy stared ahead at his friend's head, wishing that he could say something that would make it better. Well, he wished there _was_ something that could be said to make it better. The blonde knew that the Nara didn't blame him for the loss of Chouji, but that didn't help the loudmouthed ANBU from blaming himself. Or from bring unable to let go of the fact that _Shikamaru's_ best friend was gone because _Naruto's_ best friend had abandoned the village.

"Don't do that. You know I've never blamed you for it. It was a mission, like any other. If I have anyone to blame, it's myself."

Naruto looked up in surprise as the object of his thoughts spoke up, not even missing a step as they continued walking. Shika didn't turn and look at him, but the blue-eyed shinobi could see the tension in his friend's shoulders relax fractionally as Ino hugged his arm comfortingly. He managed a slight smile, though it was one tinged with bitterness. He was happy for them, of course. Ever since Ino had gotten over Sasuke, everyone had known it would just be a matter of time before she admitted her feelings for the lazy genius. But that didn't make it any easier to watch. It was like watching Lee and Sakura, although that hurt a bit more at times. It wasn't so much that he still had feelings for Sakura, or that he'd _ever_ had them for Ino. No, it was the simple fact that Lee and Shikamaru and Ino and Sakura HAD someone to come home to. They had someone waiting at the gates when they returned from a dangerous mission. Someone to tend their wounds and hold them at night and cry into their arms over the danger they must have narrowly escaped. And while Naruto had his friends, and his teammates, and even his dream that was swiftly closing in on reality, there was still one thing that hadn't changed. He was _still_ alone.

He sighed, pulling his mask down over his face to hide his conflicted and brooding emotions. It wasn't as though he hadn't had interested parties. After he'd proven his worth by fighting against Otogakure and Akatsuki for several years, the village had begun to grudgingly accept him as a part of their fabric. It didn't hurt that his looks had improved with age. While he still had the same unruly shock of blond hair and brilliant blue eyes, age had added inches to his height and muscle to his frame. Some even said that he looked very like the Yondaime Hokage at times. He scoffed quietly to himself. That was amusing, in itself. Though they would have to accept that, regardless of their feelings about him, he was strong enough to be a candidate for Rokudaime Hokage, that didn't mean that they had to like him. Especially not those who numbered among the council members. Naruto knew perfectly well that they'd likely never completely accept him. But that didn't matter as much. Tsunade had chosen him, and it was out of the council's hands as long as the blonde fulfilled the requirements asked of him and proved his strength as a shinobi of Konoha. And he couldn't DO that right now if he couldn't get his mind together. One of the things he had to do was to teach a Genin team, and the council and Tsunade still felt at this point that he wasn't stable enough to put him in charge of children. Not that he blamed them, but it was frustrating. He was supposed to get his Genin team sometime in the next couple of months, on a trial basis, but even that was still a bid by the council for his failure.

As the teams parted ways, he found his feet taking a detour, following a path that he knew well. Though he could have avoided it, avoided where his heart and his feet seemed determined to take him, he simply sighed and silently obeyed. When mutinous limbs stopped their forward motion, he simply stared with dull blue eyes at the bridge. A faint smile ghosted across his features as his mind painted a picture from years since past. Sakura leaning against the railing, arms crossed over her chest while she rolled her eyes at him as he tried, yet again, to ask her unsuccessfully for a date. Sasuke standing on the railing, face twisted into a look of sullen irritation, black eyes flicking back and forth as though he expected the world to attack him at any point. Smirking at his blond teammate as he muttered something scathing that caused the orange-garbed boy to glare, plant his foot on the ground, make a fist, and start yelling something at the raven-haired Uchiha. Sasuke hopping down and sticking his face close to Naruto to say something else that only made the blonde angrier. Sakura fuming and hitting him for making Sasuke upset, then clasping slim hands in front of her and appealing to Sasuke, who would simply snub her. Kakashi appearing in a poof of smoke, customary orange book in one hand, with his usual simple greeting of "Yo." on his lips. He could see himself and Sakura, pointing animatedly at their sensei with a hollered "You're LATE", while Sasuke simply smirked and "hmphed" again.

_Yeah…those were the days. But we were fooling ourselves, in a way. We were like fish in a bubble of glass, blissfully unaware of the cat lurking just beyond the wall._

Turning away from the place, memories proving to yet again be too much to bear for the time-being, Uzumaki Naruto, ANBU captain and future Rokudaime Hokage, headed back to his apartment, ignoring the tears that tracked down his cheeks beneath the concealing ceramic of the mask and hiding his pain behind the visage of the fox as he walked off down the empty street.

Woo-Hoo, ADROS 3 is done! Yeah, I'm sure people are starting to realize that ADROS isn't necessarily a happy story. It's certainly got its happy parts, but ADROS is a story of war and the struggle to survive within said war. That means that there will be death and loss and sadness, because those things are a part of war. BUT…b/c I don't like the "everyone dies and/or is miserable" sort of endings, ADROS DOES have a good ending. I can't give away more then that, but I ask that you wonderful readers trust me and that NO MATTER WHAT, don't lose faith, ok? Anyway, so yes, Neji is a bit less then thrilled at the prospect of being put in charge of this mission. But can you blame him, really? And Chouji-fans PLEASE don't kill me! I love Chouji, I really do. But I need him to be MIA for the storyline plot to work. Yes, Naruto is supposed to become the next Hokage, but that's dependent on his progress and such. Even though Tsunade has the ultimate power to pick her successor, that person still has to meet the expectations/demands/requirements of the council. NOT an easy thing for our beloved Kyuubi. Especially not when he's still hurting pretty bad over the loss of Sasuke and the break-up of Team 7 as everyone went their separate ways. And that's another thing, I LOVE Sasuke, but he also needs to be gone for story reasons. And sorry, Sasuke fans, he's NOT coming back. As much as I love SasuNaru and the idea of him coming back to Naruto, it's not going to happen in this story. Don't worry, I'll write some SasuNaru later to make you guys happy, ok?

OK, so one thing I need to go over here is the other Konoha genin and just explain a basic run-down of everyone's status just because ADROS is set a few years in the future and it would likely be helpful to explain where everyone is at the moment.

Uzumaki Naruto – rank – Jounin/ANBU. Naruto is to become the next Hokage, and is currently undergoing training for that as well as serving as an ANBU in one of the squads. He remains single, as he never quite got over losing Sasuke.

Haruno Sakura – rank – Jounin. Sakura serves as one of the top-ranked medic-nins at the hospital and leads a genin team. Though she was offered the chance to become an ANBU, she turned it down in favor of remaining in her current standing. She's currently engaged to Lee.

Sai – rank – Jounin/ANBU. Since the last failed attempt to retrieve Sasuke, Sai has integrated himself into team 7 and serves as an ANBU on Naruto's platoon. He still likes to tease Naruto about his lack of "parts", and isn't dating anyone at the moment.

Hatake Kakashi – rank – Jounin. After the breakup of Team 7, Kakashi has never trained another genin team and simply works missions as a Jounin. Though offered the chance to rejoin ANBU, he declined. He denies rumors that he's dating Shizune.

Rock Lee – rank – Jounin/ANBU. After his surgery, Lee took a much more careful approach to his training, and after teaching a Genin team of his own, was eventually able to obtain the same rank as his other teammates. He still wears the same green jumpsuit underneath his ANBU armour, though he has lightened up a good deal on the amount of "youth" talking that he does now, likely due to Sakura's influence.

Tenten – rank – Jounin/ANBU. Tenten and her team remain close. She serves as a liaison to Iwagakure and is a member of Neji's platoon. Despite rumors that she and Neji are romantically involved, she maintains that she has no particular special person.

Inuzuka Kiba – rank – Chuunin. Kiba is one of the few who has yet to achieve Jounin rank, and spends much of his time assisting in care of the Forest of Death and it's many creatures. He takes a number of missions to Kirigakure and it is rumored that he is seeing a girl from the village there. Akamaru remains his constant companion, though a new puppy, Shiromaru, has joined him.

Aburame Shino – rank – Jounin. Shino now serves as a Jounin-sensei to a genin team from this year's academy class. It is his first time teaching, and he's having a bit of a difficult time relating to his students. As far as anyone can tell, he remains single.

Yuuhi Kurenai – rank – Jounin. Kurenai continues to teach genin teams from the Academy, though it is to Hinata's team 8 that she feels closest. She and Sarutobi Asuma married 2 years ago, and she now has a young daughter.

Nara Shikamaru – rank – Chuunin. Shikamaru remains at Chuunin level not due to lack of skills but rather lack of motivation on his part. He continues to work as part of the Niju Shoutai and also serves as both an Academy instructor and a proctor for the Chuunin exams. He is also currently involved with Yamanaka Ino, in spite of his constant explanations of her as "troublesome".

Yamanaka Ino – rank – Jounin. Ino serves as a Jounin member of the interrogation squads, using her mind-jutsus in order to divulge information from prisoners. She is currently undergoing testing towards her ANBU rank. Currently dating Nara Shikamaru.


	4. Chapter 4

A Darkened Ray of Sunshine

Chapter 4

Summary: Hinata, wrestling with both her feelings for Neji and the harsh treatment she continues to receive from her family, finally decides that she can no longer bear her life as it is. Leaving Konoha, she finds herself flung into a world that is far different from the sheltered life that she once knew. And when an offer of dreams fulfilled comes from a most unexpected source, she grabs onto the chance offered to her. But what will happen when the very thing that she's been running from comes in search of her? Will she return to Konoha, and the life that she left behind, or will she stride forward on her own onto a new path?

Rating: R/M for language and situations as well as violence.

Pairings: NejiHina, ChouHina, other random Oto-pairings (hey, Orochimaru can sleep with whoever he wants and who's gonna tell him he can't?)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I'd sell my soul to Kishimoto-sensei if it would get him to make NejiHina canon.

It was several hours later that the chosen teams left for their respective missions. Neji stood off to one side, long-haired form blending into the shadows with the exception of the stark white armour that proclaimed his status. While most ANBU preferred to remain safely anonymous, it had been such an obvious piece of information that the Hyuuga prodigy would one day join their masked ranks that it seemed pointless to him to bother with the secrecy. Besides, his fighting style paired with the long hair that he kept tied back in a ponytail gave him away. At least, to those eyes of Konoha that knew their shinobi. The white mask rested on the crown of his head, it's painted lines and blank eyes staring heavenward through the leaves of the tree that his back rested against. Paper-white eyes studied the figures of his teammates and friends as they said their goodbyes. It was only his team, along with Naruto and Kiba on their solo missions, who were leaving now. Shikamaru's Niju Shoutai group would leave later, after they had procured more information. But despite that, most of the old group had shown up to see them off. It was…nostalgic, in a way.

"Kind of like old times, isn't it Neji?"

He glanced up to see the smaller figure of his teammate settle against the tree beside him, her hands clasped behind her at the base of her spine. Like him, she had chosen to wear her armour but not her mask, the painted panda's face hanging at her hip with it's crimson ties wound around her waist and tied to keep the porcelain concealment in place. He nodded wordlessly, eyes returning to their study of the group in front of them. Tenten smiled to herself at his behavior. That was Neji, alright. He was never one to show any emotion, be it happiness, sadness, or anger. Always cool and collected in the face of everything life threw at him. But then, that was the REAL mask that the tall Hyuuga showed to the world. But Mikoto Tenten knew better then that. She'd known Hyuuga Neji for a long time, and had trained with him and worked with him for nearly as long. She knew that the face he showed the world was mostly a façade to keep his emotions in check. That didn't mean that the white-eyed man necessarily had a LOT of emotions to share. But he DID feel, that much was certain to the dark-haired kunoichi. If you had asked her exactly _what_ Neji felt, her guess would have been as good as anyone else's. But just because she didn't know his emotions didn't mean that she couldn't read him like a very difficult book. So when he simply grunted a response and turned back to watching, she merely smiled to herself and stood there.

To his credit, Neji _was_ paying attention to his surroundings. He watched as the third member of his team stood off to the side, talking to his fiancé. Lee's expressive face beheld a tenderness that was reserved only for Sakura as he gently tucked a strand of pale pink hair behind one of her ears and kissed her hand before pressing a gentle kiss to her lips. Sakura blushed slightly and glanced at the ground for a moment before leaning forward to rest her forehead against Lee's chest. The two of them lurched forward, Sakura letting out a startled bleat as her fiance was quite suddenly accosted by 3 children who tackled his legs. The black-haired Jounin laughed and let go of his fiancé to ruffle the dark hair of one of them. Neji's eyes narrowed as he studied the boy. Long dark hair tied back in a ponytail, white eyes fixed on his sensei, spidery veins radiating from the corners of those same eyes. Hyuuga Hashimaru. A cousin, born to Bunke parents. The Hyuuga ANBU felt his mouth set into a hard line as he watched the child flit around Lee with his teammates. It was ironic, in a way, that the very same young man who had spent most of his childhood at odds with Neji was now nurturing and guiding a child from the same clan as his rival.

_But that's not why Lee is Hashimaru's sensei…_

Neji mused to himself, the lines of his face hardening slightly as he thought back over the circumstances that had brought the child to Lee. Hashimaru was much like Neji, a boy who inherited a startling level of the Hyuuga talents. Indeed, it had even been said by some that he might one day surpass his cousin. But then tragedy had struck in the form of illness, and the five-year old's fever had soared to such high levels that his brain had sustained damage. Sakura had been called in to treat the child in time to save life, but too late to prevent the fever from stealing away Hashimaru's sight and leaving the boy locked in a world of blackness. From then on, the young Hyuuga had lived a frail life with his chakra dedicated to the constant use of his Byakugan in order to view his world and thereby lead some semblance of a normal life. When Hashimaru passed the preliminary exams and entered the academy, it was Neji who had stared down the disbelieving looks that the elders shot towards the boy.

_I can't say that I ever expected you to make it this far. It wasn't your fate to be a shinobi. And yet, you seem determined to overcome your odds. Much like him. _

_Much like her…_his mind whispered to him, though he pushed the thought aside as he watched Hashimaru talking animatedly to Lee. In a way, it was reminiscent of the way that the taijutsu master had always idolized his own sensei. And Neji, though he would never admit it, was happy to see someone treating the boy not as an invalid, but as a normal child. And while it had been Neji who saw to it that his young cousin was allowed to study, it had been Lee who gave the boy his next chance. Though the Hyuuga elders had mellowed and acquiesced to the fact that Hashimaru, like all Hyuuga, should at least get the cursory schooling that the academy provided, they rose against the idea of his graduation and placement on a genin team. A child who was forced to devote nearly all of his chakra into merely making his eyes function, and who was thereby unable to learn or utilize any of the techniques that his clan was known for had neither business nor reason to become a shinobi. But there had been one person who refused to write the disabled child off as such; Rock Lee, the self-proclaimed "genius of hard work". Though he'd never detailed the circumstances to Neji, the green-suited Jounin had somehow come across his future protégé as the young Hyuuga worked to train himself. And something in the desperation and determination suffusing the boy's visage had struck a chord in Rock Lee. Perhaps it was because he saw himself in Hashimaru, or perhaps it was because he saw the child as a chance to prove to the entirety of the Hyuuga clan that destiny _could_ be changed and that even one who had the odds stacked against him could prove his worth.

Whichever reasoning it was, Neji didn't know. What he _did_ know was that after the graduation ceremonies, it was Lee who appeared unannounced on the doorstep to the Hyuuga manor requesting audience with Hiashi. And it was Lee who finally talked the Hyuuga head into allowing the blind boy a chance to prove himself. Therefore, when the Genin teams were announced, it was such that of those genin assigned to Rock Lee, the name of Hyuuga Hashimaru rested beside those of Shiori Mikan and Unakira Daichi. And despite all that he wanted to feel, all the chiding words about fate and destiny and it's inability to be changed, Hyuuga Neji found himself unable to keep from watching and hoping as his teammate and rival had trained and guided and supported his young cousin. And he wasn't disappointed. The thick-browed Jounin taught the Hyuuga boy much more besides simple fighting moves. And so it had been that Hashimaru not only learned to fight, but also learned to truly see. He learned to rely on his ears and his nerves. To increase and focus his chakra so that by emitting a constant yet slight flow of it from all tenketsu, he could sense motion as it came towards him. To block out all other sound so that his sensitive ears could pick up something so faint as an enemy nin's heartbeat. To strengthen himself overall so that while he still couldn't see without his Byakugan, he no longer was dependent on it for every move that he made. And the result was that, along with his teammates, Hyuuga Hashimaru was scheduled to take the Chuunin exams in the upcoming fall.

"Neji."

The Hyuuga prodigy was startled out of his musings by a soft female voice that begged his attention. Glancing up, blanched irises settled themselves on the figure of Yuuhi Kurenai. No, he corrected himself. _Sarutobi_ Kurenai. The crimson-eyed Jounin stood a few feet in front of him, brilliant irises fixed on his own, painted lips pursed in a look of deep thought. Her husband stood slightly behind her, thin trail of smoke wafting up from the cigarette that rested perpetually between his lips, their young daughter balanced in one arm. Neji wondered cynically if the man even put the cancer stick down to eat. Straightening up, he gave a barely noticeable nod. Kurenai frowned slightly before brushing a few stray strands of black hair from her face. She'd never liked the elder Hyuuga much, especially given the way that he often treated the student she liked to think of as a surrogate daughter or little sister. But he was perhaps the only one that could find the girl. Not to mention, Hinata thought very highly of him. Though she could only suspect, based on small words and gestures, the raven-haired Jounin would have been willing to venture a guess that the shy Hyuuga's feelings for her stoic cousin went a good deal deeper then most people realized. But then, it wasn't Kurenai's place to interfere. She cleared her throat, glancing at Asuma as if she needed his support.

"I know you aren't taking this mission out of anything other then familial loyalty and orders from Tsunade-sama, so you don't have to pretend that you want to be here. But…"

She paused, as if collecting her thoughts.

"Hinata is precious to me. I see her as my own daughter, in a way. And so, I'm asking you to please bring her back to us. Where she's safe. I ask it as a favor, even though I realize that you owe me nothing."

He stared at her, expression betraying nothing in regards to his emotions. Behind her, the little girl kicked in her father's arms, and Asuma set her on the floor. She promptly clung to her mother's legs, dark brown eyes studying Neji intently. Tenten smiled and crouched down, rummaging in her pocket for a wrapped piece of hard candy. She held it out to the child, who took it with one chubby hand. The little girl glanced back up at the Hyuuga's intense stare and retreated back behind her mother. Frowning at her teammate, the younger kunoichi straightened up and shook her head.

"You scared her, Neji."

Squatting back down, she cocked her head at the girl, handing her the white mask that hung by her waist.

"Kanna-chan, don't be afraid of Neji-Grump. He's just grouchy. Here, you can wear my mask until we have to leave, ok? Kurenai-san…"

She stood up, brown eyes meeting the vermilion-hued ones that stared worriedly at her.

"I promise that we'll do all we can to bring her back. Right, Neji?"

Her silent teammate frowned at the moniker of "grump", but nodded slightly. Kurenai smiled at Tenten, nodding in assent. Even if she didn't necessarily believe that the Hyuuga cared much for the wellbeing of his younger cousin, she knew she could trust in one thing. Hyuuga Neji never failed a mission once he'd taken it. Taking Kanna by the hand, she turned to leave.

"Neji, Tenten…thank you."

He watched the two Jounin and their child make their way back down the pathway and into the safety and security of Konohagakure. Turning to his shorter teammate, Neji nodded once to her before his hand slid up to grasp the smooth white shape of his mask, pulling the painted ceramic down to cover his face. Stepping forward and pushing off of the tree, the ANBU captain paused long enough to gain the attention of the final member of his team. Sai glanced up from where he had been sketching something on a small notepad and gave a barely noticeable nod before pulling his mask down as well and standing up. The small pad and pencil vanished seamlessly into the fabric of his uniform as he adjusted the sword that hung across his back. Wordlessly, the ever-smiling shinobi moved to stand by his new team, ignoring the overly friendly greeting that he received from Lee. With a simple nod from the Hyuuga, they were gone in a flash of white ceramic and concealing black cloaks.



Her small face concealed by the folds of the tan-coloured cloak she'd hastily purchased at the first village she came to, Hinata tucked herself deeper into the hollow trunk, senses whirring as she suppressed chakra and silenced motion and sound. They'd be following, she knew that much. Sheltered though her life may have been, the Hyuuga heiress had no illusions as to her current state. Fugitive, if you really looked at it, having left in the dead of night from the sanctity and sanctuary of her family's home. On the run, not from those who would wish her dead, but those who would wish the small bird returned to it's gilded cage of order and delineated roles in which to walk and live. Oh, they would pursue her. Not only that, but the dark-haired girl was rather certain that the one _heading_ that very same patrol would be none other then her cousin, Neji.

Neji-kun… I'm sorry, but I can't let you find me. You…wouldn't understand, even if I tried to explain.

And she was right, of course. Running away, hiding and shying away from pain and hardship and difficulties. None of those were a part of the ANBU captain. He was made of strength and determination and perseverance. Things that his shy cousin lacked. Things that though she understood them, always seemed to be beyond her reaching fingers that brushed ever so tremulously against the whispers of courage and strength but never managed to grasp them for herself.

She'd traveled all night, on foot through the forest, moving as though demons of hell themselves had propelled her. Silence, night, and secrecy were her only allies and they were allies she could ill afford to lose. Hinata knew perfectly well that her chances of outmatching her cousin, should he find her, were laughably pathetic. Really, there was no use in even entertaining the idea. So she had to be faster then him. Faster then _them_. And they were ANBU. Elite, trained, far stronger then she was and could ever truly hope to be. Shaking her head, the petite girl brushed the nervous thoughts from her mind. There wasn't time for that. Turning her thoughts back inward, she mentally calmed her mind before placing one ear against the inside of the hollow trunk. Though it would have been easier to simply use the traits that her own bloodline granted her, Hinata knew that using the doujutsu at this moment would be tantamount to suicide.

If I use Byakugan…they'll be able to sense the chakra. That would give away my location as easily as a map. So I just…have to keep moving. Keep the distance, until they stop. Afterall, even ANBU have to stop and rest at some point, don't they?

For all that she didn't know the answer to that question, Hinata hoped that she was right. Because regardless of whether those who trailed her heels had to stop and rest, the petite Chuunin knew that she would have to stop and rest. As she pulled herself out of the tree trunk and darted off through the low-hanging branches, the dark-haired heiress mentally thanked her sensei for insisting that she go through with the medical training she had taken.

I guess you were right, Kurenai-sensei. It wasn't for nothing after all.

It had seemed pointless at first. After all, she was a failure. Weak, unable to properly defend herself, and living constantly in the shadow of her prestigious clan. Not to mention that there were already others far more talented then herself. But the crimson-eyed Jounin had been insistent that her kunoichi charge not allow her latent talents to waste away in silence. And it was true that the learning would come in handy. A medical ninja, unlike other shinobi, had the capacity for longer treks, harder traveling, simply by virtue of their ability to use their chakra to bolster their own stamina. Which, at this point, meant that as long as she could keep up the pace, she would be able to last longer then they could. And right now, Hinata felt that was her only real hope of evading their capture. Not outrun them, but outlast them. Preserve the status quo and keep her distance until their energy faltered. Then she would have to use her skills and take the opportunity that presented itself in order to broaden the span of ground between herself and the ANBU platoon.

It would prove to be a hope that panned out. She didn't know how long it had been, or how far she had run, but eventually she began to feel the ebb of the faint chakra signatures that trailed far behind her. And even though it could have simply meant that they had caught on to the fact that she knew they were there and chosen to mask their chakra even further, Hinata didn't allow herself the doubts. Doubts weren't for now, there simply wasn't time. Dropping to the ground, the slight girl leaned against the nearest tree, one hand braced against the rough and uneven bark as she panted, drawing in breath in deep gasps. Shaking slightly with her muscle's protests at the overuse, she closed her eyes and concentrated, willing the chakra to wrap around the muscles in her legs and soothe away the tension and pain. There would be time for healing later, now she only needed to bolster the reserves. Directing the energy inward, she focused it on her heart and lungs, willing them to relax, to allow the healing flow to suffuse them. It would only take a few moments, but then she'd have at least another few hours before she would be forced to rest. Enough time to put another several miles between herself and the others, she hoped. Pushing herself away from the tree, she swayed on her feet for barely a moment before she was off again through the trees.

God, that took me an inordinate amount of time to finish, and it's still shorter then what I wanted. Anyway, ADROS 4 is done, and the next part should be significantly less awkward for me to find a way to easily word and deal with so hopefully it won't be as long in coming. Hope everyone enjoyed this latest chunk. Hina's got it a bit hard atm, b/c there's really no way she can handle Neji on his own, much less Neji, Tenten, Lee, AND Sai all at once. That being said, her only option is to keep running and hope they don't catch up. Which, logically, they would do if she didn't have the bonus of being able to use her medical knowledge to bolster her stamina beyond the normal limits.


	5. Chapter 5

A Darkened Ray of Sunshine

Chapter 5

Summary: Hinata, wrestling with both her feelings for Neji and the harsh treatment she continues to receive from her family, finally decides that she can no longer bear her life as it is. Leaving Konoha, she finds herself flung into a world that is far different from the sheltered life that she once knew. And when an offer of dreams fulfilled comes from a most unexpected source, she grabs onto the chance offered to her. But what will happen when the very thing that she's been running from comes in search of her? Will she return to Konoha, and the life that she left behind, or will she stride forward on her own onto a new path?

Rating: R/M for language and situations as well as violence.

Pairings: NejiHina, ChouHina, other random Oto-pairings (hey, Orochimaru can sleep with whoever he wants and who's gonna tell him he can't?)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I'd sell my soul to Kishimoto-sensei if it would get him to make NejiHina canon.

"Are you sure we should stop here, Neji? There's still a few more hours until daylight, we could gain some ground."

White porcelain raised, painted lines reflecting the moon's pale gaze as the Hyuuga pushed the mask up onto the top of his head to regard his green-suited team-mate as he shook his head. Tenten dropped to the ground beside them, bunned hair a slightly amusing parody of the ears on her panda mask as she pulled it off of her face, hands planted firmly on her hips as she raised an eyebrow at the captain.

"Lee's right, Neji. We should keep going."

Blank eyes regarded the two of them, taking in the slight trembling of muscles, the heavier breathing, the way chakra was beginning to falter. Shaking his head again, Neji pulled out a kunai and simply began shredding the verge, cutting down small limbs and stripping them of leaves.

"You're tired, and your chakra's drained. We all are. We'll get nowhere if we run ourselves to death pushing too hard. An hour or two, three at most, is all we need. Once we've rested, we'll keep going."

_She won't get far, afterall._

He might not have spoken the words that flashed through his mind, but he knew they understood. Hinata wasn't like them. She may have had the advantage of distance and a head start, but they were stronger, faster, more skilled then the girl whose footprints led them. Neji had no illusions of the way this mission was going to end. Afterall, it was obvious to the stoic man. Hinata-sama was weak, much weaker then he or any of his teammates. What difference would a mere few hours make in regards to distance between them, after all? Tossing the stripped branches down in a pile in the center of the clearing, he nodded to Lee.

"Lee, go get some brush to use for kindling. Tenten, you and I secure the perimeter. We don't know what might be lurking in this part of the country. Sai."

From the nearby tree branch, the fourth member of the team simply nodded his head in acknowledgement, without saying a word. Neji fought back a frown at the other Jounin's attitude. He didn't particularly like Sai, not because there was anything _wrong_ with the other man, but because the ex-Team 7 member had that disconcerting manner about him. As though everything about him was fake, a façade to hide the emotionless coldness that ran beneath. And even to Neji, one who was schooled in stoicism, in keeping his emotions under lock and key and presenting a calm and unruffled front to the world, it was disturbing to see someone who seemed less as though they merely _hid_ those same emotions and more as though they simply didn't _possess_ them. Robotic, expressionless. Like the puppets that proliferated themselves through Sunagakure whenever his ANBU team was assigned a joint mission with their allies of the Wind country.

"I can track her, you know. It wouldn't be that hard, White-eyes."

Biting back irritation at the nickname, the ANBU in question shook his head. That was another reason why he didn't like Sai. The annoying nicknames and attempts at jokes. Hyuuga Neji did not, as far as he was aware, possess anything that could have been termed a "sense of humor", no matter how many times his comrades and teammates tried to find one within his countenance.

"No. That takes more chakra and could lead any enemy nin in the area to either us or to her. Just light the fire, if you want to draw so badly."

Getting to his feet, he nodded to Tenten before the two of them leapt off into the trees to scout the perimeter. Without a word, Sai shrugged his shoulders and took a seat, back leaning against the rough bark of the tree. Pulling out his sketchbook, he put pencil to paper, the rough scratching of lead against off-white fiber soon becoming the only sound. Moments later, the relative silence was broken by the arrival of Lee, armful of brush tucked against the gray of his armour. Kneeling down beside the jumble of sticks that Neji had provided, the thick-browed man began artfully arranging them into a tent-like formation around the brush, lower lip caught between his teeth as though deep in thought. Sitting back on his heels, he beamed at his work with a nod, rummaging in his pockets.

"Wonderful! Now all that is needed is a source of flame!"

With a flourish of brush, Sai sent the inked creation scurrying down the trunk of the tree, the small dragonish creature pausing at Lee's knee before it took a deep breath and reared back to blast a minute inferno onto the dried kindling. Twigs and leaves rustled, caught, and soon blazed up with a deep crimson glow as the construct evaporated into a puddle of ink that slipped along the ground and found it's way back into the inkpot at Sai's waist. He regarded Lee with a smile.

"There you go, Fuzzy-brows."

Mentally calculating that this might be the time to try and make "friends" with the green-suited taijutsu user, Sai nodded to himself. Certainly he had grown close to his own team-members, as well as some of the other shinobi he worked with, but that still didn't mean he'd made a lot of progress. Especially with the group that he was currently traveling with. They were older, even by only a year, and with the exception of Lee, the three of them tended to keep somewhat to themselves. Especially Neji. The white-eyed captain was positively elusive when he wasn't on missions, always training or meditating or doing whatever it was that tight-assed Hyuuga did when they weren't on mission. Whatever that might be, Sai didn't know, and as his initial attempts at making conversation with the long-haired captain had yielded less then favourable results, perhaps it was time to try a different approach.

Tenten was the same, only for different reasons. While she was certainly more friendly then her stoic teammate, she wasn't like most of the other kunoichi. For one, she was fairly plain, brown hair and eyes doing nothing much to distinguish her, and having, in Sai's personal point of view, no special ninja traits of much mention. But that being said, the girl with the buns in her hair was a formidable fighter, and made up for her lack of memorable jutsu with her _very_ memorable arsenal of weapons and taijutsu techniques. An arsenal of which Sai did not wish to be on the receiving end of, especially since the brown-haired girl seemed to have some indication of leaning more towards the violent persuasion of his own pink-haired teammate.

Which left Lee. With a nod, Sai flashed a wide grin at the black-haired man, cocked his head to the side, and began his "friendship conversation" in what seemed to be his favourite way.

"So, since you're engaged and all, I'd assume you've got a decent-sized one, right?"

The somewhat perplexed look on the taijutsu-user's face was interrupted by the return of the other two members of their party. Neji glowered at Sai for a moment as he dropped a pair of dead rabbits in front of them.

"Cut that out, there isn't time for it."

As little patience as he normally had for Sai's antics, that patience was already wearing thin with the length of time it was taking to track down his wayward cousin. By all rights they should have already overtaken her and drug her back home to where she belonged, surrounded by the posh walls of the Hyuuga compound, simply submitting to fate's determination for her future. Not sitting in the wilderness, eating over a campfire and chasing her irritating person through the woods. But that was something to worry about later. Schooling his features into their normal calm appearance, he reminded himself that regardless of what he may have felt, he was shinobi. A mission was a mission, whether he wanted it or not. Hyuuga Neji did not fail his missions. And at present, his mission was to recover his cousin, the same cousin that he was supposed to devote his life to serving. That being the case, recovering her was exactly what he would do. Pulling out his kunai and making quick work of cleaning the two carcasses, he soon had the two rabbits on a spit over the fire. They wouldn't take long at all to cook, then they could nourish themselves and be on their way again.



Sandaled feet pounded against the ground as she ran, steps uneven and faltering. The soft grunt as a body impacted with the trunk of a tree gave way to more footsteps as she pushed herself away from the barked surface and continued onward. Further, she had to get further. It would be dawn soon, she had to get as far away from them as she could.

_Can't…stop. Have to…keep going. Just…just a little farther…_

If anything about the current situation could have been considered "good", it would have been the fact that the young Hyuuga's chakra was so drained from constantly having to heal and bolster her muscles that she wouldn't have been surprised if even Neji's sharp senses weren't able to pick her up. But that didn't mean much of anything in the face of the ANBU training. Neji wouldn't have _needed_ her chakra signature to find her. Hinata stumbled, falling to one knee as she gritted her teeth. The muscles in her legs simply refused to go any farther. Straining, she pushed herself up, feeling injured flesh protesting mightily, biting her lip against the pain as she mentally begged her body not to fail her now.

_Just…a little…more…_

Sadly, however, a little more proved to be a little more then bruised self could take. She felt her head spin and her legs give out as the no-longer familiar trees and branches of her surroundings swirled together into a maelstrom of chaotic colours, blackness bleeding in from the edges of her field of vision. With a soft sigh, the exhausted kunoichi crumpled to the ground in a heap, chakra utterly spent, resources tapped dry. Un-noticed by the unconscious girl, a small pair of green eyes peered out of the foliage at her prone form, watching the rising sun's light play across her features.

She wouldn't have been able to say how much time had passed, seeing as she barely remembered passing out in the first place. Hinata felt the first vestiges of consciousness press softly against her mind with gentle fingertips. First sound, the quiet twittering of birds, the soft rustle of wind through tees as the morning's breeze caressed the new leaves with a tender and loving touch. For a moment, she thought she heard the faint tinkling of windchimes, remniscent of the small globe of blown glass with it's metal tails that had hung outside the window of her room in the Soke portion of the Hyuuga estate. Or perhaps it was the faintest tinge of homesickness that made her think she could hear a slight bubbling, the frothing of liquid over a crackling fire as though something were being cooked. Like how she could so nearly remember her mother when she was a child. How Hyuuga Hanako had insisted on cooking meals for her daughter herself, despite the fact that there were numerous servants who could have taken care of the duty instead.

Which brought her hazy mind to the next sense, smell. It had to be unconscious memories surfacing, because interlaced with the familiar scents of spring flowers and fresh water and clean wind was the scent of kindling being consumed by flame, the enticing aroma of rice and spices, the sharp tang of medicinal herbs and the earthy scent that she usually associated with the huts and cottages of small villages she had visited while on mission. Touch was also a sense that seemed confused, as rather then the cool softness of grass beneath her limbs, or the soft kiss of the spring breeze against her hair, exposed skin rested against something that seemed far different in it's softness. Something that suggested fibers, linen or simple cotton, worn and fuzzed to a comforting level of soft smoothness. There was also the feel of a covering draped across her, and semiconscious though she may have been, Hinata knew she certainly hadn't had the forsight to cover herself before she had fainted to the forest floor.

"Are you still not awake?"

The sudden sprinkle of vocal tones that lanced their way into her ears brought her stumbling back to consciousness, senses melding together into a muddled cacophony of sound and light and sensation that threatened to send her reeling back into the blackness. Lurching up, she clawed for the thin tremulous beam of light that signified a returning to reality, grasping it with slippery fingers and refusing to let go. With a sputtering cough of surprise, Hinata exploded into consciousness, arms flailing wildly in momentary shock and disorientation. Blinking the last vestiges of unconsciousness from her eyes, she allowed honed reflexes to take over, sending her hand reaching for a kunai, feet pushing against the thin mattress and driving her back against the unyielding surface of the wall that thwarted her efforts at fleeing.

"Hey, don't freak out, I'm not gonna hurt you!"

The voice again, though haze-matted eyes hadn't yet managed to make out the source. Taking a precious moment for retrospection, she turned the tones over in her head. A soft-toned, young-sounding voice, and one that didn't seem to possess any notes of malice or harm. Closing her eyes carefully, she opened them, the bleariness that seemed to come when she'd overused the doujutsu clearing enough that she could make out her surroundings. Her initial senses had been right, though she'd dismissed them as mere mirages brought on by her subconscious. A small cottage, from the looks of things, dirt floor partially covered by a worn tatami mat, aging fireplace of cracked stone bricks set against one corner. Over the fire hung a simple iron pot from whence the delicious smells as well as the sound of bubbling liquid seemed to issue forth from. Hinata herself was laying on a small cot, a thin coverlet drawn up over her, patchworked markings on it's surface playing blatant evidence to the many repairs the homely blanket had seen. At the end of the bed, her kunai pouch and shuriken holster sat, undisturbed, beside a small bowl of water and a jar of what looked to be some sort of ointment. A simple table and chairs was made from what looked to be a battered table with a wooden crate on either side, sitting against the far wall beneath a window.

"Hey! You done freaking out yet?"

With a startled gasp, she spun around, searching for the source of the voice that had drawn her from unconsciousness. White eyes widened, then narrowed, settling on the form of a…child? Perched at the end of her cot was what appeared to be a child of roughly 7 or 8 years of age, sitting on her haunches, skinny elbows resting on equally bony knees, chin cradled in small hands. Brownish black bangs hung askance around green eyes, the small face held in an almost smirk of amusement at this adult creature who seemed so afraid of a mere child. Cocking head to the side, the child repeated her question.

"Can't you talk? You done freaking out yet?"

Shaking herself out of the sudden shock, Hinata took a deep breath, running fingers through cropped indigo hair before nodding. The girl, at least she _assumed_ it was a girl, didn't appear threatening, but looks could be deceiving after all. Best to stay on her guard. The child had a certain androgynous quality about her, not as though it was a natural trait, but more of the sort that one saw in children living on the streets or in a ghetto, who simply had no means of caring for themselves beyond the basest necessities of life, and who often had to make do with what they could find. Skinny, scrawny figures, longish, often unkempt hair either straggling across dirty faces or pulled into a simple style that could have sufficed for either gender. No ornamentation or anything else to suggest gender or status, as those children had no status, and had no need or means to draw attention to themselves.

_A child living by herself, perhaps? Or just an illusion, designed to make me drop my guard?_

Clearing her throat, she moved to say something, but was interrupted by the sudden shoving of a bowl of some sort of soup into her hands. The child waited patiently for Hinata's fingers to grasp the chipped and dented ceramic before turning and ladling a second portion into a worn wooden bowl and setting it on the table at the end of the cot. Dragging over one of the battered crates from the other table, she sat down, legs crossed and pulled up on the crate, and rummaged in her pocket. Pulling out a slightly dirty utensil, she meticulously polished it off with the corner of her shirt before handing it to Hinata with a wide smile.

"Here, you can have the spoon."

Unsure what to say, she hesitantly took the item from the child, taking note of how dented and worn the metal looked. It was becoming more and more obvious that, were this not a genjutsu, this must be a child living alone. That was really the only reason for the Spartan state of the dwelling, or the slightly dirty appearance of the girl. Staring down at the soup for a minute in trepidation, she picked up the spoon but hesitated. What if it were poisoned? Or laced with a sleeping draught, designed to incapacitate her so that Neji and his team would find her an easy mark. Or worse, so that an unknown assailant would be able to use her as they saw fit?

Hinata had never been what one might call a "paranoid" person, but she was quickly finding that when one is on the run, things present themselves in a very different manner. Pale irises regarded the child carefully as the dark-haired imp lifted her own bowl and began to drink in a rather greedy fashion. Well, it didn't make much sense to poison one's own food, did it? Hesitantly, she lifted the spoon and scooped up a portion of the thin broth before sipping slowly. It was surprisingly good, seeming to be comprised mainly of vegetables, spices, and some sort of meat she couldn't identify. Obviously brewed from the sorts of things one could find in the wilderness. And while the broth itself was thin, the rice in the soup made up for the lack of substance.

It was when the spoon hit the suddenly empty bowl that Hinata realized just how hungry she had actually been. Cheeks burning slightly, she painstakingly memorized the thin cracked lines that traversed the pale blue bowl, hoping that the child wouldn't notice how hungrily she had devoured the simple meal. It was embarrassing, really. A trained shinobi like herself, and she'd done such an abysmal job in this whole "running away" idea. While leaving in the dead of night had, in itself been a good idea, it would have served her better to have waited until she was sent on a solo mission. Then she could have simply completed her mission and vanished. Already away from home, already on her own.

But rather then the idea that already seemed blatantly more sensible, she had simply thrown some things into a bag and run. And while she'd thought to bring rations and the like with her, she had miscalculated the hard terrain, the speed with which she would have to move, the inability to stop and rest. In short, she'd been a fool.

"You're a ninja, right?"

Glancing up, she found the child once again perched at the foot of her bed, studying her with an interested and rapt sylvan gaze. Unperterbed by her "guest's" silence, she pointed to the hitai-ate that rested around Hinata's neck.

"That's what that means, right? That's cool. Are you on a mission or something?"

Plopping down, stick-thin legs outstretched, the child brushed overgrown bangs out of her face with a grin.

"I'm Saya. What's your name?"

"Hinata… How… how long have I been here?"

She glanced around the room, trying to figure out how much time had passed since she had fainted. She had to get moving, get out of here. Every second lost was a precious second that she needed between her and the ANBU team, if she planned to remain "lost". She went to push the covers aside, but was interrupted by Saya shoving the newly refilled bowl back into her hands.

"Don't worry. You're bein chased, right? They can't find you here."

The Hyuuga was perplexed for a moment, but chalked it up to a child's simple mentality. The girl obviously didn't understand how it worked, didn't know that Neji's Byakugan would have been able to pick out anything it wanted to, that something as mundane as a simple cottage wasn't about to provide much defense against it. She made to protest as the girl hopped off the table and grabbed the edge of the tatami mat that covered much of the center of the floor. But any protest died in her throat as the straw shifted to reveal weathered parchment with faded crimson edges, the black ink on it turned a sepia shade with age. A seal. An old one, it looked like, as some of the characters she recognized, while others seemed vaguely familiar and yet different, as though an altered form of a language she knew. Saya stood there for a moment, regarding the parchment, before she turned back to Hinata.

"Grampa used to be a ninja. A long time ago. But they made him fight in this war, and he had to kill a lot of people. After the war was over, he said he didn't want to be a ninja anymore, because he thought it was wrong, the way he'd had to kill so many. But the village didn't want to let him go. They wanted him to still be a ninja. So he ran away. He told me he put this here so that no one could find him. It's the big one, there's little ones buried all around, in a circle. Grampa said it keeps chakra out, like a wall. So anyone who comes near it can't tell there's anything on the other side. I wanted to be a ninja too, but Grampa said no. He said it's nothing but killing and war, and that I should just be a normal girl and not try and be one."

She trailed off when she got to the part about her own future. Hinata watched as the girl paused, hands fisting slightly for a moment as though pushing back an unpleasant memory. But just as soon as the expression wafted across the child's face, it was gone again as she turned back to the indigo-haired Chuunin with a wide grin.

"But yeah, no one can find you when you're in here, so you don't have to worry about anything. It's really neat that I get to meet another ninja. Grampa was the only ninja I ever met before, and he was really old. He took care of me when Mom and Dad died from the fever. Ne, can I ask you something? I…even though Grampa said I shouldn't, I still wanna be a ninja. What should I do so I can be one?"

Hinata felt a lump rise in her throat at the open and guileless green gaze the girl directed at her, eyes so full of hope and anticipation. This child, this girl…wanted the life Hinata herself had. She should feel honoured, amused, _proud_ that she could be an inspiration to a child simply by virtue of being what she was. But that…wasn't what the kunoichi felt right now. Saya didn't know the truth. She didn't understand the nuances and subtle shades of the world she spoke of. The world of blood and darkness and secrets that Hinata inhabited. The life that, although it was the one she had been born to, the Hyuuga couldn't help but wish she could be free of. Yet as she opened her mouth to admonish the child, to tell her that no, she didn't really want that life, Hinata found that the words just wouldn't come.

_She…wants it so badly. The way that…I want acknowledgement, that I yearn for notice… I can't…take that away from her, don't know how to tell her that it isn't the glorious and magical thing she thinks it is._

Looking around the shabby little dwelling, she could feel, even more strongly then before, the emptiness of the room, the way all the life, all the hope seemed to be focused inward on Saya. The life of a shinobi was the girl's dream, her hope. Likely, it was the only thing that kept the child going, alone as she was. Pushing back the lump in her throat, she managed a weak smile.

"Saya-chan, I think…I think that you should be yourself. And that if that's what your dream is, that you should hold onto it and never let it go. And just do the best that you can. That's really all there is to it, I think."

She hoped her somewhat cryptic answer would suffice as reasoning, and that she wouldn't have to delve deeper into reasoning, reveal that the painted image Saya held of the shinobi world was just that. A painted facsimile that would one day shatter in the face of reality's harshness. And thankfully for her, it seemed to be enough for the child, who smiled and nodded before hopping to her feet and grabbing a rough wooden bucket from beside the door.

"Thanks, Hinata. I'm gonna go get some water. You can rest here for awhile. No one's gonna find you in here, so it's ok."

With a smile and a nod, she pushed open the door and darted out, leaving Hinata to her own devices. Watching the door slam shut behind the small figure, she sat still for a moment before pale hands reached up to the nape of her neck. With a slight tug, fabric parted and the metal plate with it's band fell into her lap. Turning it over, she traced the familiar symbol with one finger. This was…the symbol of herself, symbol of what she was. But…was that really all it was? Was a shinobi something so simple? In her youth, the heiress had never given it much thought. A shinobi protected the village, they were soldiers, heroes, protectors.

_But that's not all we are…We're…killers. Destroyers. __**Tools**__ of the village, as much as we are a part of it. Is that really…all that we are? Is that all that __**I**__ am?_

The silvery metal gleamed up at her, it's surface marred by faint scratches and dents here and there, bearing testament to the missions she'd faced the training she'd undergone. Had it all been for nothing? All to become a tool for bloodshed and war? She respected that there were shinobi who could be perfectly fine with that. Who could lock their emotions into a box and put them aside and kill for the sake of the village. But she, she wasn't like that. Hinata had always viewed herself as weak, but now the words of Saya's grandfather, fallen from the mouth of a small child, brought her weakness into sharp relief against the backdrop of her own insular world. And it was proving a bitter pill to swallow, bringing her failings as a shinobi into glaring and sharp contrast against the reality she wanted to cling to. Her world was that of black and white and the deep crimson red of blood. While she herself was soft, pale, ethereal and delicate. A flower growing amidst a bloodied battlefield, her very nature a contradiction with that which she chose to use to define herself.

_No wonder I'm such a failure…_

Fingers clenched around the hitai-ate as a lone tear splashes onto the metal, moist droplet sliding across the slick smoothness of the plate, catching in the indentation of the carved leaf symbol. It was true. She _was_ a failure. But that…that was the past. Afterall, wasn't that why she'd left? To start over, make a new life for herself? Maybe…maybe she could put everything behind her. She didn't even have to remain a shinobi, if she didn't want to. Yet as suddenly as that thought brushed it's tendrils through her mind, it was assaulted by memory of her fight against Neji during the Chuunin exams. Of Naruto's words of encouragement. Of _her_ own insistence that she wouldn't give up. That such words would be her nindo, as they had been for Naruto. No, she wouldn't give up on being a shinobi. Because doing that would make everything she'd worked for, everything she'd fought for become meaningless. Shaking fingers brushed over the metal, their trembling finally stilling as she grasped the cloth band and lifted the strip back up, tying it once more in it's proper position around her neck. She wouldn't give up. She would be strong. And then she would prove that even a failure, who couldn't ever get rule 25 right, could still become a worthy shinobi.

So yay, Chapter 5 finished. I know the idea of the "chakra-proof" house is a bit hokey at first, but if you think about it, it actually makes sense that such jutsu and seals exist. They would be invaluable for stealth and concealment on the battlefield, especially if you have a wounded comrade that you can't move at present. Just to clarify how they work, they don't deaden ALL chakra in the area, as that would create a 'dead zone' that would stick out like a sore thumb. Rather they dull down the chakra concentration within them to what would be considered 'normal' levels for a perfectly innocuous patch of forest/grass/whatever. And since they don't block vision, they're often used either on a structure such as this case, or in conjunction with a genjutsu that would fool the physical senses. And yes, Saya's grandfather was a missing-nin, as he defected and ran. And as tempting as it was to have him be from Konoha, it wouldn't have made sense for him to settle in the same country as the place he ran from, so I made him an ex-Suna-nin. And yes, Hinata's view of the world is really starting to open up. She's always seen things from one side, seen the "light" side of things and never really done much thinking about what the "real" purpose of shinobi is and it's a hard hit for her to take to realize that not only is she weak in terms of her skills, but that her very nature is an anomaly among "true" shinobi, and that in a way, her failure as one extends farther then she'd thought it had before. And yes, Saya is a girl. XD. She's just a scrawny and skinny little bony thing that you have a hard time telling that from.


	6. Chapter 6

A Darkened Ray of Sunshine

Summary: Hinata, wrestling with both her feelings for Neji and the harsh treatment she continues to receive from her family, finally decides that she can no longer bear her life as it is. Leaving Konoha, she finds herself flung into a world that is far different from the sheltered life that she once knew. And when an offer of dreams fulfilled comes from a most unexpected source, she grabs onto the chance offered to her. But what will happen when the very thing that she's been running from comes in search of her? Will she return to Konoha, and the life that she left behind, or will she stride forward on her own onto a new path?

Rating: R/M for language and situations as well as violence.  
Pairings: NejiHina, ChouHina, other random Oto-pairings (hey, Orochimaru can sleep with whoever he wants and who's gonna tell him he can't?)  
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I'd sell my soul to Kishimoto-sensei if it would get him to make NejiHina canon.

She'd waited until sundown, but even that had, ironically enough, not seemed long enough to that portion of herself that was still resisting, still fighting against the path on which her feet trod, the spectral line that led her inexorably away from the world she'd always known and into one filled with the unknown and shaky depths of what would – hopefully – become her future. It was proving difficult, though she'd expected that it would be, to completely let go and relinquish the stranglehold that fear and familiarity had bred within her, the tight grip that she still clung to. Konoha... was her home. It was the place she'd been born, the place she'd grown up in. The place... she still wished to call home. But that option had been closed to her now, closed by her own determination and resolve, and closed – on a different level, a different scale – by the events that had threatened to sweep her up with them, to drag her along into their multicoloured veil towards a destiny that she wasn't prepared to accept.

She could see it now, the images painted onto her mind with the clarity and brilliance of the stained glass windows in a church her mother had taken her to so long ago she could scarcely remember. In fact, the only things that she _did_ remember of the trip had been her mother's long-haired, smiling figure... and the windows. Faceted in shades and hues that no rainbow had ever dared to assume, the glittering edges limned in black and casting sparkling patterns of colour across the floor, the walls, even her own small form as she'd spun and danced amidst the showers of coloured light, her usual shyness somehow forgotten in the face of such childish wonder.

That had been a day that even her father couldn't spoil, though he'd certainly scoffed slightly at the idea that such a simple thing as coloured glass could mystify his daughter, and he'd remained stoically unmoved even when Hanako had gently reminded him that they had all been children once, and that childhood in and of itself was a time for wonder and magic. Her mother had been pregnant then, her stomach starting to swell with the bulge of child that had been her sister, Hanabi. They'd been _happy_ then...

_Why couldn't things have just stayed like that?_

She chided herself for the thoughts even as they filtered their way into her mind, shaking her head slightly before running hands through indigo hair with a sigh. Of course they couldn't have stayed that way. Things changed, it was simply the way of things, whether they changed for the better or for the worse. Just as Konohagakure had changed for her, the comfortable home she had once known shifting in slight ways over the course of the years from a sheltering, nurturing place among her friends and family to what she could only consider a cage, clipping her wings and holding her down. A place where one could not be a failure, not when one belonged to a family such as hers.

_Stop that. Didn't you decide that you weren't going to let your life be decided by that? Didn't you make up your mind that you would prove it to them? Prove that they were wrong?_

Firming her resolve within her mind, the former heiress of the Hyuuga clan nodded to herself, standing up off of Saya's small bed and swinging the black duffel onto her shoulder again. Fingers went without volition to the nape of her neck, slim digits automatically curling, grasping for the familiar fall of dark hair only to clutch at the ragged ends of her shorn hair. That was right... she kept forgetting that part. That she'd cut it all off, leaving the silken strands glistening in an indigo pool on the tatami of her darkened room, a silent offering to the past that she was leaving behind, as well as a tacit reminder of her other resolve. That she would forget him, forget what he meant to her and what she'd wanted for them. Her hair had been the link, silly though she'd thought it was at times, that held them together, the small grain of idealism that had enabled her to try and picture what it would have been like to comb fingers through his long chocolate strands. But she had given that up, had left it behind the way she'd left her hair. Lowering her hands, the white-eyed shinobi carefully fingered her hitai-ate before nodding to herself and heading towards the door, only to take a startled step back as it swung open, the small figure of Saya standing there, staggering slightly beneath the weight of the battered wooden chest in her thin arms, her veridian eyes staring accusingly up at Hinata.

"You weren't gonna say goodbye?"

The child's sullen, slightly hurt look cut at her, and Hinata bit her lower lip in mollified shame. What had she been thinking, this girl had helped her. Had taken care of her, perhaps even put herself at great risk from Neji's ANBU team... and all out of the most simple reasoning of a child's good nature. Opening her mouth to say something, the dark-haired Chuunin brushed a strand of night-blue hair from her eyes as she struggled to frame an adequate apology for the situation at hand.

"Saya-chan, I..."

Before the Konoha kunoichi could finish her request for forgiveness, her companion simply shrugged, stepping around her house-guest with the easy grace of a child on a mission, teetering slightly beneath the obvious weight of the burnished crate.

"It's ok, I understand why you were gonna leave without sayin' anything. But it's still kinda mean though, ya know..."

All she could do in the current situation was to swallow her pride and embarrassment at being given a lecture by a 7-year old and nod slightly in the face of the child's scolding tone. Turning, she made to follow the girl, her eyebrows drawing together in concern as the child struggled with the case. Surely it was too heavy of a trunk for such a little girl to be carrying all on her own, and Hinata couldn't fathom what could be so important as to justify the amount of trouble it must have taken to move the chest. Watching, she drew back her offered hand as Saya dropped the heavy box with a resounding thump onto the tatami before plopping down in front of it, crossing skinny legs and rummaging into her pockets with one hand while the other scraped itself across her forehead, brushing aside overgrown brown bangs in a gesture of clear relief. Apparently finding what she'd been looking for, the girl let out a satisfied chirp of acknowledgment, brandishing a rather old looking key in one clenched fist, the greenish hue of the tarnished brass coating the finer points of ornamentation on the little piece of metal as it swung slightly on a short, equally-tarnished chain. Clasping her hands at the small of her back, Hinata cocked her head to one side, watching as Saya bent over and worked to shove the business end of the key into what must have been a very old lock, as it took the green-eyed imp a few minutes of creative wiggling and pushing, brushing bangs from her eyes with her lower lip caught between her teeth in concentration before there was a muffled click and the old key turned.

"Got it! Come and see!"

Hinata suppressed a mental sigh as she obeyed the little girl's rather insistent demand, closing the short distance and settling down into an easy seiza on the dusty mats. Despite what Saya had stated about understanding the situation, she was beginning to wonder if the little girl really _did_ appreciate the shinobi's need to be on the move as soon as she could. Neji's team may have been nearly a day behind, but while she waited and rested, they would close that distance with the rapid speed of an overflowing river, and then all of her planning and her resolve would be for naught. But... she'd already offended her host once by attempting to sneak out on her own, so the least she could do was humor the girl for a moment. Again brushing her hair out of her face, she wondered for a quick moment how Sakura put up with hair that was neither short enough to be entirely of no consequence, or long enough to tie back in an effective manner when needed. The thought of the blush-haired medical-nin brought the other girls' face easily to mind, her mental synapses painting a clear picture of the girl who, though she'd always been too shy to really admit to it, she'd always considered a friend. As her mind's eye traced over the image with a degree of fondness, reminding herself that it was likely she'd never see her friends in Konoha again, her attention caught on the red-cloth of the hitai-ate tied into Sakura's carnation-hued locks. Now that was an idea...

Reaching into her bag, she rummaged blindly for something to use as a tie, questing fingers finally coming into contact with a roll of linen bandaging. Pulling the small cylinder out of her duffel, white eyes studied the wound cloth for a moment, considering. She only had the one bandage, another shortcoming in what she was now realizing was a woefully poorly prepared flight, and she might need it. But it was an extra-long roll, and if she used her training and was careful, then she could likely make it last. Not to mention, there were always the bandages around her lower legs. Nodding to herself, the midnight-haired girl carefully stowed the roll of bandage back into her pouch where it would be within easy reach, before pulling one knee up to her chest and hooking fingers into the edge of one of the strips of bandage around her calf. With a tug in the right place, it loosened, and she unwound a long enough strip before slicing it cleanly with her kunai. Reaffixing the end of the bandage, she studied her leg for a moment with a nod before tilting her head back and tying the strip she'd cut around her forehead, pushing it back to hold her hair out of her face.

"Done now?"

With a half-startled yelp, she glanced back up to see Saya studying her with an expression comprised of a mixture of annoyance and expectation. As the child cocked her head to one side, Hinata could feel the heat rise in her cheeks. Scolded again, and by someone ten years her junior. Clearing her throat, she managed a wan, apologetic smile.

"S...sorry, Saya. I couldn't see with my hair in my face like that."

To her credit, the girl seemed to accept that as a reasonable excuse, and instead nodded her head back towards the trunk as she placed both small hands on either side of the latch and gave the lid a hard push, gritting her teeth as long-unused latches announced their protests in loud squeals and creaks before the lid slowly lifted. Unsure what her role in this was, Hinata simply sat and waited, pale eyes studying the trunk. It was a large trunk, nearly as large as Saya herself, which made the fact that the little girl had been able to carry it all the more amazing, but what struck her more than the size of the wooden crate was it's obvious age. Sides, lid, bottom, all were fashioned out of wood stained in a shade of cherry she had never seen before, accented here and there by traces of what looked to have once been lacquer, gathered mostly in small cracks and imperfections on the wood's surface. Two thick leather straps wrapped across the top of the lid, stretching down to form a base for the heavy brass latches holding the lid closed. That same antiqued brass was picked out in accents on corners and edges, her sharp eyes picking out faint, small engravings here and there of a design she wasn't familiar with, save one. In the center of the lid, picked out in finely-worked brass, was the familiar hourglass sigil of Sunagakure. Putting two and two together, she raised her gaze to Saya's.

"This... was your grandfather's trunk."

With a nod, the girl finished pushing the lid open, settling back on her haunches with a heavy sigh.

"Yeah. He always kept it at the end of his bed, and sometimes he'd show me what was in it. But... I always felt like it made him a little sad. But he wouldn't throw it away."

Reaching into the trunk, she started rummaging around, tossing things aside and burrowing through folded clothes and papers. Hinata inched slightly closer, curiosity momentarily overcoming her mind's internal argument that now was not the time to be playing 'remember when', and that she should be leaving as soon as she could. Craning her neck to peer around the lid, she jumped in startled surprise as Saya's small arm shoved something under her nose. Taking the flat square from the girl's hand, she turned it over, realizing with a start that it was a photograph, a very old photograph at that. The colours in the shot were yellowed with age in spite of the protective glass set into the simple carved wooden frame, the image depicted that of two men and a woman. All three were smiling jovially, wearing what she recognized as a modified version of the flak jackets current Sunagakure shinobi wore, hitai-ate proudly displayed on their foreheads. The sandy-haired man on the left had his arm around the brunette woman's shoulders, while the darker-haired man was laughing, a scroll tucked beneath one arm, green eyes bright with mirth and good humour. Studying the photo, she noted the marked resemblance to Saya in the shape and shade of his eyes. Glancing up, she pointed to the man.

"This is your grandfather... isn't it?"

Nodding the girl sat back again, taking the picture from Hinata and cradling it in her lap, small fingertips brushing over the dusty glass.

"Yeah... that's him and that's Koharu and Raisha. They were all on a team before the war."

Hinata caught the slight emphasis on 'before', and paused a moment before querying further. It was likely that Saya didn't even know much about her grandfather's past, or that it was a painful subject. Watching as the child set the photo aside and continued rummaging, the Hyuuga set her teeth against her lower lip for a moment before reaching out and picking up the snapshot again, holding it in her lap as Saya tossed things aside.

"Saya-chan... what do you mean _before_ the war?"

There was a long pause, as though the child were considering her answer, or perhaps considering how to phrase her answer or even whether said answer was something she wished to share, before the rummaging resumed itself.

"They died. In the war. Grandpa said they were a team together, from when they were little. They were friends, and they fought together. Koharu and Raisha even got married and had a baby. But.. then they all died. Except Grandpa."

Shifting slightly, Hinata bit her lip as her eyes once again flittered over the happy, smiling faces in the image. They looked so content, so... peaceful that it was hard to believe their lives had been snuffed out so. And even an innocent child... Setting the photo down and swallowing back the sudden lump in her throat, she glanced around at the things Saya had tossed aside, in search of something to distract her from facing the reality of the world she lived in, the world that Saya _wanted_ to live in. The world of a shinobi wasn't one of glory and praise and laud. It was a world of death. A world of blood and pain and loss, where the few fragile moments of beauty and peace that you could find were snatched from the jaws of the beast both figuratively and literally in some instances. A world where a life could be created and snuffed out in the same instant, for no reason that any living creature could understand. She'd never _seen_ it happen, not on the grand scale of the great shinobi wars, where hundreds were lost and the pained cries of the survivors could be heard throughout the village. Not when entire towns erupted into flames and became nothing more than blasted, ruined skeletons of themselves in the wake of destruction. She herself had never seen _war_ in all it's true ugliness and horror. But she'd seen death. She'd seen the attempted destruction of Konoha at the hands of Otogakure and Sunagakure, though the latter had been deceived and manipulated. And though their mission had ultimately failed, there had still be casualties. Still been heartbreak.

Shaking her head slightly, as if to clear it, the runaway shinobi glanced around, alabaster irises catching something familiar. With a slight frown, Hinata reached out, tugging on the corner of paper that stuck out from under several books and journals, wiggling the sheaf of parchment enough to eventually free a stack of papers bound together at one side in a crude notebook fashion. Drawing it over into her lap, she traced fingertips over what had caught her attention; the familiar character of a flash-bomb seal.

_What's this?_

Flipping absently through the pages, she frowned, pausing to take a closer look, eyes widening as she turned another page. In an abstract way she assumed it only made sense that such things existed, but to actually be seeing it was something entirely different. Glancing up, she paused in her perusal of what she could now only consider a manual.

"Saya-chan... this is..."

Looking up from the trunk, green eyes went from Hinata's face to the sheaf of papers. With a simple nod, Saya sat back on her heels again, folding hands in her lap.

"Yeah. That's Grandpa's work. From when he was a ninja."

In half-stunned awe, Hinata let her attention drift back to the papers in her lap, eyes tracing over the notes and diagrams, the patterns and carefully drafted descriptions and illustrations. She'd never before seen the mechanics of jutsu tags before, though every shinobi knew that there was a method to making them, a method that had to always be adhered to unless one wished to find oneself potentially blasted across the landscape. Exploding tags were the most dangerous ones, the seals and procedures used to essentially compress a high-level katon jutsu into a piece of paper and combine it with a precise triggering mechanism beyond the knowledge or understanding of most shinobi. For that reason, the methods behind making such things were kept strictly confidential, with individual villages jealously guarding such secrets. That Saya's grandfather had been in possession of this would only mean...

"He used to make those things. The seals. When he was in Suna. And the village put him in charge of making the old ones better too. But..."

Saya paused, sighing slightly as she hugged a cracked plaster mask to her chest.

"Grandpa loved it. He used to tell me he loved it because his work helped make things safer. Helped make it so the bombs didn't go off by accident anymore when they got too hot. Or that the flash ones only lasted for a little bit, so they didn't hurt people's eyes for good anymore. He always said it was like he was helping protect everyone in the village. He'd even made one that could hide people or things. But... then the war happened. And they wanted him to make a better one. One that made bigger explosions. So he did, but... it wasn't finished right. And they made him use it anyway, and it blew up too soon. That's... that's how Koharu and Raisha died. And... the baby. The explosion started a fire, and lit all the other bombs on fire."

Hinata listened in silent horror to the story, her mind all too easily painting the picture of the tragic past that must have driven Saya's grandfather to flee his village and persue the life of a missing-nin. It was hard to imagine the guilt the man must have felt, the shame at having his two best friends and their innocent child killed as a result of his work, the work he had been forced to use for the ugliness of war. Staring back down at the notes, she let her eyes flicker from the stark clarity of the reports and back to the smiling faces in the picture. It wasn't fair, not fair at all, and it hardly mattered that she couldn't deny that war never _was_ fair and that innocents all too-often suffered. Swallowing, she glanced at the girl, noting the slight shake in Saya's small shoulders. She could already imagine how things must have gone from there, without the need for clarification from the child. Regardless of the situation, if the man had truly possessed such talented skills, Sunagakure would have been unwilling to simply let him fade into obscurity and retire, especially during a time of war.

"He... wanted to stop. Right? But... they wouldn't let him."

It was more statement than question, but nonetheless, thin shoulders shifted slightly in affirmation as Saya nodded, lowering the mask to the floor again as she continued.

"They wanted him to make more bombs for them. And... they wanted the new one he'd made, the one that hid things. They thought that if they had that... then they'd be invincible, because they could send their ninjas on mission and no one would be able to see them until it was too late. But... Grandpa didn't want them to have it. He said he'd made it to protect the ninja of the village, not to help kill other people. But they didn't listen, and they made him use it anyway. So one night... he ran away. He took all the notes he had about it, and ran away and came here."

She let the girl finish, somehow sensing that it was cathartic, a release of long-built-up frustrations and pain that should never have been carried by one so young. This child had seen the shell of a once-noble shinobi, one whose ideals had been such that he'd defied his village for them, that he'd deserted and turned against his former comrades in an attempt to preserve what he held dear; the very lives of those same comrades, and the lives of people he hadn't even met and likely _would_ never meet. It was... admirable, and for a moment Hinata couldn't help but wonder how many other such cases there were in the world. How many other so-called 'nuke-nin' were really good people who had simply not followed the status-quo. Quietly, she gently reached over and placed the sheaf of notes and the photo in Saya's lap, sitting back and taking a deep breath for a moment.

"Saya-chan... I think he sounds like he was a wonderful man. He just wanted to make everyone's lives better, and he cared so much. Not just about the shinobi in his own village, but even about people who considered him their enemy. That's... a good thing."

For a moment, she thought the child would cry, her small form trembling slightly, little fists clenched in her lap and head hung, but after a moment, Saya raised her head, a smile that would have put Naruto's to shame gracing her young features as she beamed up at Hinata. The Konoha shinobi felt herself relax slightly, the tension leaving her frame as she studied the girl's features, seeing nothing of the pain or sorrow that she'd expected to see mirrored in those wide green eyes.

_She's so strong... so much stronger than even I am..._

The thought came almost unbidden, but it's weight still carried the same sense of humility and almost shame when she compared what she considered to be her abject failings to the simple strength of this mere child who had weathered such knowledge all on her own. It made her almost ashamed of her own weakness when she considered her situation beside Saya's. The little girl was all alone, fending for herself in the wilderness, left with the memory of a grandfather who had defied a nation and been condemned for it. Doubtless, she'd had to deal with the old man's guilt and bitterness over his situation as she grew up, constantly having her dreams put aside by a man who, good-intentions aside, had no desire to see his grandchild step into the world from whence he'd fled.

_I should be ashamed..._

Her own problems seemed so minescule compared to that, and the fact that the girl still managed to smile that way in spite of them... reminded her of another who'd overcome insurmountable odds. Smiling slightly, the pearl-eyed Hyuuga could easily picture a second smiling face, this one topped by blond hair and set with sparkling blue eyes carrying the same mirth. Another who had smiled through the hardship.

"Here! This is for you!"

Hinata found herself startled out of her reverie of self-depreciation as Saya shoved a wrapped parcel into her arms. Fumbling slightly, Hinata glanced down at the cloth-wrapped bundle in confusion for a moment before setting the tan-coloured suede down in her lap and tentatively unwrapping a corner. Her curious exploration revealed a half-dozen kunai, each of them with a slightly modified shape she didn't recognize, tied into a bundle. The blades rested on top of a neat stack of tags, bound with a red band, and several small boxes marked as smoke bombs, shuriken, and medical supplies. Her eyes flickered up to Saya, a look of surprise and shock on her face. This was... it had to be precious to the girl, one of the few things she had left from her grandfather, and beyond that... she found it hard to imagine that a child who wanted to be a shinobi one day would so willingly give up such a thing to a complete stranger.

"Saya-chan... this is..."

"It was Grandpa's. It'll help you. See? Those are the ones that hide things."

One small finger pointed at another sheaf of tags, these bound with a blue band. Carefully pulling one free from the stack, Hinata studied it carefully. She'd never seen one like it, not with this particular patterning and seal-work. Even allowing for changes that naturally occurred with time and age, the make-up of the seal was still alien to her. Would it... really conceal her presence? The way a genjutsu would? Lowering the tag back to her lap, she folded hands across Saya's gift. She couldn't take this, not when the child had so little left of her grandfather.

"Saya-chan, I... I can't take this... It's..."

"He'd want you to have it."

She broke off at Saya's statement, staring at the girl, then back down at the parcel in her lap. Whether that was true or not, she had no way of knowing. Perhaps it _would_ have been the truth, as the man had obviously not wanted his grandchild to have this, to follow along on his path. When considering that, it only seemed logical that had he been given the chance, the man would have perhaps chosen to gift the remnants of his past to someone who could make use of them. Careful of the tags and the sharp edges of the double-bladed kunai, Hinata gingerly wrapped the pale khaki cloth back around the entire bundle before gently placing the entire parcel into the top of her pack.

"Thank you, Saya-chan..."

Getting to her feet, she glanced out the window towards the falling sun. She'd waited as long as she could, and within a few moments it would be dusk. Turning back towards Saya, she gave the small girl a warm smile, shouldering her bag and resting a hand on the door's latch. The simple 'thank you' really didn't seem in some ways to be enough of an expression of gratitude for what the girl had done for her, in ways that couldn't be seen. Certainly Saya had fed her, sheltered her... but the girl had done more than that. She'd given Hinata back something she'd momentarily misplaced; her resolve, and her dedication to what she'd once decided would be her path in life.

_I won't forget you... or your strength._

Turning, she pushed the door open, only to be stopped by Saya's words.

"Don't go north."

Glancing back over her shoulder, the Hyuuga heiress raised an eyebrow in confusion, as the girl pushed herself up from her place in front of the trunk, scratching her head as she did.

"That's where you're goin', right? North? So... don't go that way. Go another way, so they get mixed up. Like... go sideways for a bit and THEN north, if that's where you want to go."

The logic was so simple that she mentally scolded herself for not having thought of it beforehand. While her original destination had been north, that had only been because it was simple, straightforward. An easy trek, and one that led to familiar paths and roads, places she knew she could traverse, and towns where she knew she could find supplies. It had never occurred to her that anyone else, especially her intelligent cousin, would consider the same thing, and plan for such an outcome. In face, it was entirely possible that were she to continue her current path, she would simply find him waiting for her in the first outpost she came to. Chewing thoughtfully on her lip for a moment, the young woman considered her options. East was a relatively simple path, easy to traverse and not all too out of the way of anything major. Backtracking over her own tracks would have been the most intelligent thing to do, allowing her to simply reverse her own chakra signature and then branch off in a different direction at some point, thus leaving two equal and distinct trails for anyone who was tracking to follow, thus decreasing the chance of pursuit by half. The west track was the hardest, the terrain more treacherous than any she'd been on before. And...it was the path that they were least likely to suspect her of taking.

Hinata allowed herself an almost sarcastic inner laugh at the thought of what Neji or any of the others would have said if someone suggested she'd taken the hardest route from Konoha. As she had no illusions when it came to her father's regard for her, neither did she try and delude herself into thinking that her cousin considered her what he would define as a 'capable shinobi'. It had always bothered her, the way that those around her, even her friends, belittled her in their thoughts, always underestimating and compensating for her, whether it was out of a smug sense of superiority, like Neji... or a misguided sense of friendship, as was the case with Kiba. But regardless of the reason, she could use those assumptions to her advantage now. Nodding to Saya, she carefully closed the door behind her and headed out into the darkening twilight, footsteps carrying her west. Towards the border.

OMG, yes it IS ADROS 6. I must say that I honestly apologize for the length of time it has taken me to start writing on this again. I love Naruto, I always have, but there was a period of time there where the series itself had me very disappointed. As a result, I threw myself far more into my other favourite series, Bleach. And this little project was set on the sidelines as my muses refused to cooperate. But, as you can see, here they are, working again. And so I again work on this project.  
For any interested parties, I wanted to expand on the idea of Saya's grandfather simply because I wanted to expand on the idea of the chakra-proof safehouse. It's not like anything that we've seen in canon, and I am a rather firm believer in the idea that if you introduce something new like that INTO a canon, than you should introduce it's origins as well, so that it doesn't simply become a brand-new plothole. As it is, the exploding tags and other such things have always somewhat fascinated me because of their very nature. While we all understand the mechanics of bombs – and any who don't can simply Google 'bomb' and find all the information they need (which is frightening, if you think about it) – it's never truly been explained how you can make such a precise sort of bomb with seals and ink. My own take on them is that they are essentially complex, high-level katon jutsu that have basically been worked into a piece of paper the same way any sort of scroll (think Kakurou's summoning scrolls, etc.) would be. Hence they would include seals for the jutsu itself, seals for the SEALING of said jutsu, and seals for the triggering mechanism and it's control. All in all, that seems like a lot of work to go into a little piece of paper that's gonna blow up. So in that line of reasoning, there must likely be specific shinobi in a village whose sole purpose is the creation and development of these things. I mean, who initially said "hey, let's make a bomb into a piece of paper". Either way, it just makes sense to me. So I chose to make Saya's grandpa one of these shinobi. Really tragic, in a way, as he saw his research and his work as a way to make the things SAFER, because I'm sure that the earlier ones were probably buggy and prone to explode if exposed to too much heat or something like that. And just as tragic is the fact that no village is going to want to watch that sort of information walk away. ESPECIALLY not when there's a war going on.  
So now Hinata is off again, hopefully leading Neji off of her trail. We'll see how it goes in the next chapter. XD


End file.
